A Fresh Start
by Akiyotame
Summary: AU. Umi and Kotori start their own restaurant.
1. Chapter 1

Kotori steadied the ladder and looked up at Umi fixating the newly made sign into position. The blue haired girl took a deep breath and wiped the sweat off her forehead, looking down at Kotori with a thumbs up. The sign was finally in place and Umi carefully made her way down the ladder to meet with the eager Kotori. Upon reaching the ground, she was instantly tugged by her arm and pulled a few paces back.

"It looks great doesn't it, Umi?" said Kotori as she hugged onto her arm.

"We did work hard on it together after all," she responded with a smile. Kotori hugged her arm tighter in excitement and released a small yelp of joy.

"We're going to be successful right Umi?" Kotori asked with a slightly worried tone.

"We have to, we have the legendary maid Minalinsky with us after all," Umi said jokingly to cheer up the girl. "Come on, let's head inside and get ready for the grand opening tomorrow." she smiled and led Kotori back into their new life labeled with a sign that read, "Ocean Flight"

* * *

Night came and Umi stood alone in their bedroom deciding on what she should wear when greeting their new neighbors. She couldn't decide between wearing her business attire, or the traditional clothing she had gotten as a gift from Kotori.

"I think you should go with your usual business clothing for tonight," whispered a light voice from behind.

Startled by the sudden break of silence, Umi looks back to see Kotori's head poking out from the bathroom, "W-what are you going to wear tonight?" she asked frantically.

Kotori took a step out from the doorway to show Umi what she was going to wear for the night. It was the white summer dress that she had picked out for her a few months back. "I thought this would look nice for a first meeting, don't you agree?" she said with a smile.

The blue haired girl stared for a while before snapping back to reality, "Y-you look wonderful Kotori!" she turned around quickly to get changed. Kotori giggled and approached her,

"Here let me help you." she said happily.

* * *

The couple stood together in front of the shop next door with a sign that read, "Kousaka Sweets Shop" the two looked at each other in question.

"Do you think they have cheesecake?" Kotori said excitingly. The girl had a taste for cheesecake and Umi snickered. "W-what? What's so funny about what I said?" It took a few seconds for Umi to recollect before she replied to Kotori.

"Kotori, look, its a traditional Japanese sweets shop. They wouldn't have something like cheesecake here would they?" she looked at the girl apologetically as she broke the news to her.

Saddened by the reality, all she could reply with was, "Oh…" They stood there together for a few moments before trying to get the owner's attention again. Kotori's eyes flashed, she remembered something, "Wait, Umi, if it's a traditional Japanese sweets shop, then they must have manjuu!"

Umi nodded as the screen door flew open, startling the couple. Standing in the doorway was a ginger haired girl with her hair tied to the side, "Um, can I help you? We're closed right now…"

The two girls glanced at each other and Umi decided to speak up, replying to the stranger, "G-good evening, we just moved in next door an-" she was cut off by a cheerful cry that came from the ginger haired girl.

"Oh! You're the new neighbors that I have been hearing about! Come in! Come in!" The girl suddenly became energetic and practically pulled the clueless couple inside. "Welcome to Kousaka Sweets Shop! My name is Honoka, what are your names?" Kotori and Umi were speechless by the sudden burst of energy that was radiating off of Honoka.

"I-" a squeakish voice broke the tension as Umi and Honoka turn towards Kotori. "Um, my name is Minami Kotori and this is Sonoda Umi," she gestured towards Umi who instantly bowed in response.

Honoka paused for a second, "Oh, if we're doing full names, I'm Kousaka Honoka, obviously." she replied with the same energy as before pointing towards the sign hanging above the counter. "My mom owns this place and I help out whenever it gets busy," the girl moved behind the counter and bowed, imitating how she would greet customers.

The couple laughed at Honoka and moved over to the counter. "So is your mother home right now?" asked Umi while examining the sweets on display.

"She's asleep right now, she caught a cold yesterday so I had her stay in bed all day. I had to man the store today, in fact." replied Honoka. She looked over at the intently observing Umi and asked, "I-Is there something you're looking for?" Umi didn't reply and kept looking.

Kotori spoke up and caught Honoka's attention with an awkward chuckle, "You see… she enjoys manjuu a lot. She's probably looking to see if you sell any here." The ginger haired girl smacked her fist against her palm.

"Oh really? We actually have some leftover manjuu if you wa-" she was cut off by Umi suddenly bolting up.

"We'll take it please." she said stiffly.

Honoka nervously laughed and pointed to the door behind her, "How about coming to the back for some manjuu and drinks then? We can talk in a more relaxing setting."

* * *

The couple followed Honoka into a spacious room, in the middle sat a small table surrounded by cushions. "Take a seat here, I'll be back with the manjuu and drinks-" she paused, "Do you two have any preferences for drinks? We have tea, water, carbonated drinks..."

"Just tea is fine" replied Kotori. She knew that Umi wasn't a fan of carbonated drinks so tea would be the best option. Honoka disappeared through the door and the couple sat in anticipation. Kotori looked at Umi and smiled, "She seems nice, I wonder what her mother is like?" Umi giggled and replied,

"If she's anything like her daughter, probably just as energetic. We'll have to visit again when she's recovered from her cold so we can meet properly."

Kotori nodded and Honoka returned into the room with a tray holding a plate of manjuu and 3 cups for the tea. Umi spotted an out of place slice of bread on the tray and questioned it, "Honoka? What's with the piece of bread?"

The girl set down the tray and started pouring tea, "The bread is for me, I like to eat bread often as a snack." she finishes pouring the tea and hands the cups carefully to them.

"If you eat a lot of bread, you'll get fat…" Umi added as she took a hold of the cup. Honoka laughed nervously at Umi's words and handed the plate of manjuu over to her. Umi's eyes lit up and she began indulging herself immediately.

Honoka looked to Kotori, "So what brought you two here?" she asked as she bit into the bread.

"We decided that we would open up our own restaurant after we got all our finances and things settled." replied Kotori. She smiled and looked at Umi enjoying her sweets, "Umi's good at managing and cooking while I'm pretty much just handling things out front from personal experience." Kotori picked up a stray piece of manjuu and held it up for Umi to eat.

Honoka smiled at the couple and asked, "When are you two opening up?"

"Tomorrow" they said in unison.

* * *

The trio spent another hour getting to know each other before calling it a night. Honoka led the two girls to the entrance, "Well it was fun getting to know you two, it's nice to get some new faces around here," she brought the two girls into her arms for a group hug. "I get the feeling we're going to be great friends!" the girls separated from Honoka and began walking home.

"She was really nice wasn't she?" Kotori asked.

"Yeah, maybe a little too optimistic for my taste though," Umi replied with an unsteady smile.

"HEY!" a familiar voice called out to the two girls. Umi and Kotori turned to see Honoka waving at them, "I'll make sure to tell my friends Rin and Nico about your restaurant! We'll come visit tomorrow!" Umi nodded and Kotori smiled in response.

The couple walked into their vacant restaurant to make last minute check ups. Umi unbuttons the first two buttons on her dress shirt to loosen up. As she heads towards the management office, she announces without looking back, "Kotori, you can go ahead and get some sleep, I'm just going to go over our budget for the first few months, just in case."

She felt arms wrap around her and a warm feeling overtook her back, "I won't go to sleep without you, Umi," Kotori buried her face against the girl's back. "I can wipe the tables again and make sure everything looks presentable while you do that."

Umi knew it was pointless to convince Kotori to sleep without her, ever since she lost her favorite pillow, Kotori's had trouble going to sleep unless she was there with her. Umi sighed and gave in, "Alright, I'll try not to take long okay? If you get tired just come and tell me." she felt Kotori's arms release and turned around to see her smiling.

She felt a surge of heat around her cheeks and quickly moved to finish her work. Kotori giggled at Umi's reaction and proceeded to grab a towel from behind the counter to wipe off the tables one last time before the grand opening.

* * *

It wasn't an easy job managing a restaurant, Umi knew what she was getting herself into but the workload is bigger than she imagined. She walked into the office and turned on the lights. It was a small room, there was a single desk, a few chairs and some cabinets in the back.

She went behind the desk and sat in the chair, opening the bottom left drawer to retrieve an accounting book. Umi started working diligently as she always did, calculating the monthly budget, predicting stock orders and making sure that the restaurant was as perfect as she could make it.

An hour passed, and soon another two had gone by. Umi closed the book and took a deep breath, leaning back against the chair muttering to herself, "It's going to be tough, but we have to make sure we succeed here," she yawned and looked at the time.

It was already 2am.

She placed the book back into the bottom left drawer and got up. Before leaving, Umi made sure that the office was the same as it was when she walked in before turning off the light. She glanced through one of the windows on the doors to see that the front of the restaurant was still lit, "Is Kotori still awake?" she questioned.

Umi walked through the kitchen doors and surveyed the area, it was somehow cleaner than when she first entered a few hours ago. "Kotori really did do a good job here, it's spotless," from the corner of her eye, Umi caught a glimpse of a girl asleep in her chair, hunched over the table using her arms as a pillow.

Kotori had fallen asleep while waiting for Umi.

Umi sighed lightly and walked over to Kotori, gently tapping her shoulder to wake her up, "Kotori, wake up, you'll get a cold sleeping out here," the ash haired girl mumbled in her sleep,

"I hope our restaurant becomes successful Umi…"

Umi smiled and held Kotori in her arms like a princess.

"I can't promise that everything will be smooth, but I do promise that I will do everything I can to make our dream come true, Kotori," Umi carried her lover upstairs and laid her on the bed, covering her in the blanket delicately. She moved quietly around to the opposite side of the bed and slid in silently so she wouldn't disturb the innocent girl's slumber.

Umi watched her lover peacefully sleep and gave her a light peck on the lips.

"I love you, Kotori," she whispered before drifting off to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Kotori awoke slowly to find herself wrapped in Umi's arms and cuddled closer. It was rare to see Umi doing things like this and Kotori wanted to enjoy it for as long as possible. She rested her head against Umi's chest and bathed in the rays of sunshine that pierced through their curtains. It was quiet, it was peaceful, much different from living in the city.

"...Kotori…?" a sleepy voice broke the silence, Umi had woken up. Kotori carefully separated from her arms and sat up to greet the drowsy girl with a kiss on the forehead.

"Good morning, Umi~" she said gleefully as she got out of bed. Umi rubbed her eyes, still half asleep and rested her forearm over her eyes to lessen the impact of light she woke up to. "It's about time we get ready to open up, sleepy head." Kotori persisted.

Kotori grabbed a towel and headed towards the bath, "I'm going to go ahead and get the bath ready, feel free to come and join me at any time." she said jokingly.

"O-of course I wouldn't do that!" Umi bolted up from her bed with flushed cheeks. Kotori began laughing as Umi's cheeks wouldn't return to normal. Unable to deal with Kotori's jokes so early in the morning, Umi jumped back in the bed and covered herself with the blanket.

Umi stayed under the blankets until Kotori's laugh was barely audible before she emerged from the covers, "Gosh… Why does she have to tease me like that so early in the morning…?"

Umi swung her legs to the side of the bed and sat up looking at the mirror. Her hair was a mess. She got off the bed and walked over to the dresser to retrieve her brush when she heard Kotori calling out, "Umi! The bath is ready~"

"I-I'll wait until you finish Kotori!" she responded while brushing her hair rapidly and catching a snag, causing her to yelp in pain.

Umi took a deep breath and sat on the bed, continuing to brush her messy bed head. Before she knew it, she was lost in thought thinking about the restaurant. Today was the grand opening and there was no way to get rid of the nervous feeling she's experiencing. It wasn't long before she came back to reality to see a concerned Kotori staring back at her.

"O-oh Kotori, you're finished already?" Umi spoke quickly. Looking around she could see Kotori wrapped in a towel before her cheeks started heating up once again. She stood up quickly and sped to the bath, "I guess I'll be using the bath now," and disappeared from the room leaving Kotori alone.

"I wonder what happened with Umi just now…" Kotori shrugged and pranced over to her closet to pick out her outfit for the grand opening. "I guess she's just as nervous as I am," she giggled awkwardly to herself.

Kotori reached for the maid outfit that she used to wear when she worked at a cafe in Akihabara. It's been awhile since she has worn the uniform, all she could do is hope that she hasn't gained enough weight to render the clothing unwearable.

Kotori slowly put on the outfit and felt a little tightness around her chest and waist area. She had underestimated her growth since she last wore the outfit in high school, but it was still wearable. Kotori heard footsteps from behind and turned to face Umi who was wearing a large shirt to cover up.

"It's been a few years since I've seen you wear that, Kotori." she said while inspecting Kotori from head to toe.

"Yeah, it's gotten a little tight around my chest and waist," she replied nervously with a smile.

"You look wonderful, don't worry about it," Umi said in a reassuring tone. She proceeded to walk past Kotori and reach into the closet for a simple white dress shirt. She buttoned her shirt quickly and reached for her black dress pants which she slipped into quickly. Umi paused for a second before reaching for a jacket.

"I think the dark blue one would look good," the voice said happily from behind. Umi didn't second guess the girl's suggestion, her fashion sense was much better than her own. Umi reached over a few hangers and retrieved the jacket, sporting it more confidently after hearing Kotori's words.

Umi turned around and was instantly hugged by the maid, "I-is something wrong Kotori?!" she blurted out in response. She held Kotori close instinctively and checked to make sure that she wasn't hurt.

"Nothing, you just look beautiful." she said sheepishly. Umi blushed and pushed Kotori back to arm length and looked away to hide her face.

"L-lets get ready to open up," she exclaimed, pacing quickly towards the staircase. Kotori watched her leave the room before heading over the dresser to style her hair in the way she always did. She finished up her hair by tying it with her favorite green ribbon to stay in place. Kotori did one last check up in the mirror and quickly trotted down the stairs following her love.

* * *

Kotori reached the bottom floor and entered the door into the restaurant. She looked around the restaurant to find Umi standing by the entrance, waiting for her.

"Hey Kotori? What time is it?" Umi asked, still staring through the entrance doors. Kotori looked to the wall clock hanging behind the counter to affirm the time.

"Um, almost 9am…" she replied to the questioning girl.

"We should be opening soon right? There aren't any people waiting outside for opening…" Umi said in a saddened tone. She continued to move around from window to window in search of any people. "K-Kotori, why aren't there any people here?" she asked frantically.

Kotori walked up and held Umi firmly.

"Umi, just calm down a little," she pulled Umi to the side and sat her down, taking a seat next to her. Kotori reached out and intertwined Umi's hand with hers, "It's still early out, and we live in a smaller town now. Just give it some time alright?" she pleaded in hopes of calming Umi down.

Umi took a deep breath and leaned against Kotori's shoulder, "You're right…" she placed her free hand over their joined hands. "I just have to calm down, I'm sure we'll get a lot of customers today." Umi rested her head on Kotori's shoulder and closed her eyes.

Kotori poked Umi on the cheek playfully, "Hey Umi, no falling asleep here. We're going to open up really soon." Umi opened her eyes and got up, taking a step towards the entrance.

A few silent minutes accompanied by the ticking of the wall clock passed.

"Okay, its 9am," Umi stood at the entrance and flipped the sign from closed to open. She took a deep breath and positioned herself behind the counter; Kotori followed and took position right next to Umi.

30 minutes passed.

1 hour passed.

The first sign of life finally appeared through the windows. The couple watched intently as the person walked by, slowly passing the entrance and disappearing from their sights. They sighed together and waited.

Another hour passes and more passing faces were seen. No one was entering the restaurant.

3 hours have passed since opening. Kotori sat at the counter play with her hair as Umi tapped on the counter humming to herself. The sudden silence was broken by the sound of a ringing bell, startling the couple and turning their attention to the entrance.

"Hurry up Elichi, I want to give this new restaurant a try!" yelled a light voice. A purple haired girl stood by the entrance holding the door, her hair was tied into two low twintails. Another girl soon appeared through the windows running towards the one by the door. This one was blonde and had her hair tied in a ponytail.

"Geez Nozomi, slow down a little, I can't walk too fast in these shoes." said the girl while panting. The girl named, "Nozomi" held open the door so that this strangely named "Elichi" could walk in.

Umi and Kotori stood together and bowed to the two girls as they turn their attention towards them.

"Welcome to Ocean Flight" the two said in unison. Kotori moved behind the counter and got the two girls seated at a table near the counter.

"You're our first customers of the day!" she said happily handing the two of them the menu.

"I haven't seen you two around here," said the blonde. She glazed through the menu and continued to speak, "When did you two move here?"

"We moved in a few days ago, we've been busy setting up the restaurant so we haven't been able to tour the town a little more." Kotori replied. She looked at the purple haired girl as their eyes met. She smiled and spoke up,

"Hi, nice to meet you! I'm Tojo Nozomi" she said energetically.

"Ah, my name is Ayase Eli, it's a pleasure to meet you." the blonde added.

Kotori bowed in response, "Pleased to meet you, I'm Minami Kotori…" she looked up and gestured towards Umi.

"Good afternoon, my name is Sonoda Umi." she bowed in return.

Kotori looked to Nozomi and Eli asking, "So, let's start off with drinks," she took out a notepad and a pen, "What would you like?" she asked readily.

"We'll be fine with 2 coffees," Eli proclaimed.

Kotori wrote down the order swiftly and clicked her pen, "I'll be right back with the coffees, until then, please take a look at the menu and decide on something you would like." she said with a smile prancing over to the counter. She grabbed two cups and filled them with coffee, placing them on a tray accompanied with a small bowl of sugar cubes. She turned elegantly and drifted over to the two girls, placing the tray down on the table and serving their coffee, setting down the small bowl of sugar cubes on the center of the table.

"Here are your drinks, have you decided on what you would like to order?" she asked.

Nozomi looked at Eli, "I'll have the Grilled Meat and Elichi here will have the Fried Shrimp," she exclaimed for the both of them.

Kotori wrote down their orders with the same grace as before and continued to ask, "and would you like to order dessert ahead of time?"

"Do you have anything with chocolate?" the blonde asked eagerly.

"Elichi here really likes chocolate," Nozomi laughed. She continued, "I'm okay with anything, how about you choose for me Elichi?" she said teasingly.

"N-Nozomi!" the blonde yelled out.

Kotori laughed at the scene and said, "We do serve chocolate cake here if that's okay with you?"

Eli nodded and asked, "There wouldn't happen to be any caramel in the chocolate cake right? Nozomi doesn't really like caramel."

Kotori shook her head, "Nope, no caramel in them."

Nozomi nodded and declared, "Then we shall have two slices of chocolate cake!"

Kotori wrote down the dessert orders, "Alrighty then, your order should be ready in 10 minutes." she walked over to the counter and handed it to Umi with a smile, "Here's our first order, Umi."

Umi grabbed the order from her hand and moved through the kitchen doors to prepare the orders. Umi worked swiftly and gracefully in the kitchen, she fired on the grill and started heating the oil. Umi moved over to the large refrigerator and retrieved a slab of meat which she cut into several thin slices, placing them on the grill. The kitchen was filled with a sizzling sound as the meat cooked on the grill.

She hovered her hand over the oil to check the temperature and made her way over to a clear counter where she started getting the tempura mix prepared. With the mix prepared, she moved over to the sink to wash off her hands before returning to the fridge to bring out the large shrimp. Umi returned to the tempura mix and started on covering the shrimp with it. After she finishes coating the shrimp, she brings it over to the oil where she carefully drops the shrimp, allowing it to cook.

She returned to the grill and flipped the meat, the side that was once raw and red became brown and decorated with grill marks. It was in a matter of a few minutes before the orders she received would be completed.

Umi moved over to the cupboard, retrieved two plates and moved to the rice cooker to decorate the plates with freshly made white rice. She placed the plates on a clean counter and retrieved the finished shrimp and meat. She decorated one plate with the grilled meat and the other with the fried shrimp. Umi grabbed the two plates and used her back to open up the kitchen doors, placing the orders on the counter and ringing the bell to signal to Kotori.

"The orders are done Kotori" Umi exclaimed.

Kotori stood up from Nozomi and Eli's table and hurried over to the counter to get the dishes. She took one in each hand and carried them over to the two girls, "Alright, we have the grilled meat for Nozomi…" she set the plate down gently in front of Nozomi, "And here's the fried shrimp for Eli~" she bowed and said with a soft voice, "Enjoy your meal."

Nozomi took a big whiff of the freshly made food, "Mmm~ It smells amazing, doesn't it Elichi?" she eagerly grabbed her tableware and began eating her grilled meat. Nozomi let out a satisfied squeal as she bit into the meat and ate, "Oh my- this is so good!" she chewed happily, "The meat is well seasoned, it has the right juiciness and it is perfectly cooked!"

Nozomi continued to eat her food very expressively.

Eli watched as Nozomi ate her food before bringing up the shrimp to her mouth. Eli took a small bite and her eyes lit. "The tempura coating is nice and crispy, and this shrimp…" she took another bite and chewed, savoring the flavor. "This is the best fried shrimp I've had in this town."

The two girls ate happily and shared each other's food. Umi and Kotori watched the girls as they ate their food so joyously. Kotori nudged Umi's arm and flashed her a big smile, "They really love your food, Umi~" she said happily.

Umi rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment as she continued to watch Nozomi and Eli.

"Oh right, the cake!" Umi rushed back through the kitchen doors and opened the oven to reveal a cake that Kotori had prepared the day before. She reached in and placed the cake on the counter, brandishing a knife to cut the cake into several pieces. Umi grabbed two small plates and placed a slice of the cake on both.

Umi placed the cake back into the oven and carried the two small plates through the door. She placed the plates on the counter and looked at Kotori with a thumbs up. Fifteen minutes passed and the two lone customers in the restaurant sat leaned back against their chairs, satisfied with their meal. Kotori took that as a sign and grabbed the desserts to serve. She walked over to the table,

"How was the food?" she asked them.

"It was amazing," replied Nozomi.

"It was definitely a surprise," said Eli.

Kotori set the cakes on the table, "Here's the cakes you ordered, we hope you enjoy!" Kotori bowed routinely and went back to Umi to retrieve their bill, "I think we made a good first impression, Umi" she whispered to her.

Umi calculated their bill and handed it to Kotori, "I'm glad that they enjoyed it" she smiled. "It's a relief to finally see something positive today," Umi sighed in relief. Kotori grabbed the bill and returned to the table. The cakes were gone, quickly eaten by the two girls. They sat with satisfied expressions on their faces.

"You two look happy" Kotori exclaimed.

Nozomi and Eli nodded in agreement, "We'll be sure to come back here often, this is the best food we've eaten in months." said the purple haired one.

"Definitely better than Nozomi's cooking." Eli said jokingly.

Nozomi kicked Eli's leg from under the table, "H-hey!"

Eli laughed and replied, "I'm kidding Nozomi, sheesh don't take it so seriously." she turned to wink at Umi.

Kotori handed them the bill and the two girls gasped in shock, "Wh-why is this so cheap?!" Nozomi exclaimed. "We've been to many restaurants around here and their prices were way higher than this!"

Eli spoke up, "If anything, they should be reversed. This was too good to be priced this low."

Kotori laughed awkwardly, "We didn't really want to overprice our food too much."

"You should raise it a little higher!" replied Nozomi.

"We'll think about it" Umi spoke up from behind the counter.

The two girls left their payment and tip and left together, "We'll be coming back here often," said Nozomi.

"And welcome to the town, you two" Eli finished.

* * *

The day carried out with customers coming in every now and then, leaving with satisfied looks on their faces. The wall clock struck 7pm and it was only an hour until closing time. Kotori leaned over the counter and let out a deep breath using her hand to keep her head up.

"I think we had a pretty good day, don't you think so, Umi?" Kotori asked.

"It started off really slow, but once Nozomi and Eli came in, things started looking up," Umi replied with a relieved expression. The couple continued small talk and were suddenly interrupted by the ringing of the bell and a loud voice yelling,

"Umi! Kotori! Guess who kept her promise!" yelled a familiar and energetic voice.

"Is this the place, nya?" said an unfamiliar voice.

"Nico Nico Nii has arrived!" another girl sang.

The couple turned around to see Honoka accompanied by two unfamiliar girls, the one to the left had short orange hair and the other had black hair tied into twintails. Honoka rushed up to the counter and the other two soon followed.

"I told you two I would come," Honoka said cheerfully.

She rubbed the back of her head and continued, "I'm sorry we're late though, Mom is still sick so I had to man the sweets shop again today. I just got off." Honoka paused for a moment, "Oh let me introduce you to Rin and Nico!" Honoka pulled the short orange haired girl in front of her, catching the girl by surprise.

"H-hey watch it Honoka, nya" said the girl. She looked at Umi and Kotori before speaking up, "Hello you two, my name is Hoshizora Rin. I'm a fitness instructor over at the local recreation center-" She was cut off and pushed away by the smaller girl.

"And I'm Yazawa Nico!" the girl exclaimed. "I'm working as a magazine model for a big name corpora-" she was interrupted by a karate chop to the back of her head from Honoka.

"She's just a local model, don't believe her lies." Honoka said embarrassingly.

"H-hey! I was making my first impression, stupid Honkers." Nico rebelled.

"What was that?!" Honoka took a hold of Nico's cheeks and pulled them apart. Nico proceeded to respond in the same way to Honoka.

"H-hey! Don't cause a scene here!" yelled Umi.

The two girls instantly stopped due to Umi's thundering voice.

Kotori looked at the girls apologetically, "I'm sorry, Umi doesn't like it when people joke around like that." She stood up and bowed, "My name is Minami Kotori and this is my partner, Sonoda Umi," Kotori gestured to a table, "Would you three like to have something to eat before we close up?"

The three girls nodded and were seated. Kotori did her usual routine of starting off with drinks and taking orders.

Rin ordered a protein loaded meal with water to drink.

Honoka ordered a plate of curry and rice with tea.

Lastly, Nico ordered a low carb dish and a soda.

Kotori proceeded to get the drinks while handing the orders to Umi so that she could get to work and finish before closing time. While Umi worked in the kitchen, Kotori took the opportunity to sit with the 3 girls and chat.

"So, you said that Umi is your partner. How did that happen?" Nico asked pointing at the ring around Kotori's finger.

Kotori blushed and played with her ring, "We're not legal yet but… We hope that we can sometime in the future." she smiled at the thought.

Rin sat up and leaned closer to Kotori, "Do you need a wedding planner?! My friend Hanayo could help you plan it!" she said eagerly.

Kotori backed away and waved her hands denyingly, "Oh, no, no we can't get married yet. We don't have enough money for a wedding." she looked down a little gloomy. Kotori continued, "We saved up enough money to move out here and start our own restaurant…" she looked up with a dejected expression, "We've sacrificed everything for this restaurant so…" her words began to trail.

Honoka cleared her throat, "Well, I'm sure that this place will do great!" she looked at Nico, "So how's Maki doing? Busy at the hospital like always?" Nico looked at Honoka in shock.

"W-why are you bringing her up?!" she exclaimed.

Honoka looked at Kotori, "Maki is her love-" Nico lunged at Honoka to shut her mouth.

"I told you, it's not like that!" she yelled.

Kotori couldn't help but laugh at the two and looked to Rin, "The friend you mentioned earlier, Hanayo?" Rin nodded. "I'd love to meet with her one day, maybe do some planning just in case." Rin smiled and replied,

"I'll make sure to tell her about you two and the restaurant, nya."

Umi came through the doors, causing Nico and Honoka to quickly return to their seats to avoid getting yelled at by her again. She placed the plates on the counter and Kotori got up to retrieve them, she lifted her chin towards the table to signal Umi to come and sit with them. Kotori turned and Umi followed.

"Here are your orders, enjoy your meals~" she said happily.

Umi and Kotori sat next to each other at the table and watched as the three girls devoured their meals in enjoyment.

Honoka spoke with her mouth full, "So how did you two meet?"

Umi blushed and Kotori nudged at her, "I've spoken with all the customers today, how about you try for a change?" Umi nodded reluctantly.

"Well, we met at a university in Tokyo a couple years ago," she looked at Kotori, "She was studying fashion design, and I was in a completely different department for business and management." Kotori nodded and the other three girls listened intently.

"We would often take the same bus home, and naturally we began to become friends," Umi continued, "We lived in the same apartment complex, but the rent was starting to wear down on the both of us. It was hard to manage our schooling and work, so we eventually decided to live together in one apartment," Umi let out a natural chuckle.

"It was awkward at first, if I could be honest," she took a grab of Kotori's hand under the table. "It was a small apartment, only one bed so," Kotori laughed, interrupting Umi's story.

"Oh my, I remember when we had to live in that small apartment together," Kotori continued the story without Umi's permission. "You all should have seen how it was at first," she looked at Umi, "She was so chivalrous by letting me sleep on the bed every night while she slept on the ground in a futon," Umi blushed.

"But now that I think about it, she probably slept- no not "probably", she DID sleep in the futon because she was too embarrassed to sleep with me." Kotori couldn't help but giggle like a schoolgirl at the thought.

"So the closer we got, the more I began to play little tricks on her," she smiled impishly, "I would sneak into her futon and sleep next to her," Kotori couldn't stop giggling, "And then-" she chuckled, "And then-" Kotori couldn't get the words out of her mouth. She finally settled down and continued, "She would always wake up before me, so when she saw me sleeping next to her she would always react in these hilariously cute ways." she giggled slightly, "I guess you could say that Umi became like an alarm clock for me." Kotori smiled brightly and looked at Umi whose cheeks were flushed bright red.

"So, I'm guessing that Kotori was the one who confessed to you, Umi?" Nico asked abruptly.

Kotori nodded and hugged onto Umi's arm.

The loud trio had already finished their meals and seemed satisfied.

"Thanks for the food, nya," Rin said,

Nico snorted, "I mean, I guess this is better than MOST people's food."

"Just say you like it…" Honoka added quietly.

"What did you say…?" Nico replied.

"Ahem!" Umi cleared her throat and cleared the animosity between the two of them. The trio got up and so did the couple.

Honoka spoke up, "Anyways, your food was amazing Umi. I think I could get used to eating this every night, especially since it's right next door." She began walking to the entrance and the other two followed. Rin turned around to say to the couple,

"I'll be sure to come here often after a good workout, nya" she paused before continuing, "Oh, I'll also make sure to tell my friend Hanayo about you two." Rin looked at Kotori and winked.

"I'll try to help out by getting your restaurant mentioned in the local magazine if I can," Nico added.

The two walked out leaving Honoka alone with the couple, "Have a good night you two! You'll fit in nicely with everyone here, especially with the wonderful food you make." Honoka left through the entrance and Umi followed to lock the entrance.

She sighed and turned to Kotori, "What a long day, huh?"

"The first of many," she replied with a gleeful tone.

"I've got to go back and calculate today's earnings and expenses," Umi said, walking towards the kitchen doors.

"Okay, I'll get to cleaning up the restaurant for tomorrow then," Kotori replied with her ever so cheerful voice.

The two worked diligently on their duties and met at the counter when they finished. Kotori hugged onto Umi while she wrapped her arm around her shoulder, Umi turned off the light and the two of them returned upstairs to their bedroom. They prepared for bed and quickly drifted to sleep with anticipation towards the next day.


	3. Chapter 3

A few months have passed since the couple had opened their restaurant and things have been going well. Kotori and Umi have become local celebrities and their restaurant hasn't gone more than an hour without at least one customer. Business was great and the couple could finally rest easy without having to worry too much with their money. However, due to the popularity of the restaurant, the two have been running around with no breaks all day for the past few months.

"Hey Umi? Don't you think that we should start hiring some workers?" the girl asked in a stressed tone.

"I think you're right Kotori…" Umi brought her hand up to her forehead to massage it. Kotori took a hold of her hand and rubbed her thumb over Umi's knuckles.

"We can hang up fliers tomorrow and see if anyone would be interested," she suggested.

Umi sighed, "We can't hire too many workers though, I hate to say it but if we hire too many workers our budget will be cut drastically," she took a quick peek to see her partner's reaction. To her surprise, Kotori was nodding along. It came as a shock, Kotori was usually one to promote 'the more the merrier' but maybe she's seeing eye to eye with Umi here.

"I think two to four workers should be enough right?" she suggested. Umi nodded in response.

"Hey Kotori?" Umi asked, "How about we start making that flier together?" she smiled. Kotori practically jumped up yelling,

"I'll go get the materials! Wait here, Umi!" she ran off. Umi giggled at Kotori's reaction, she had always enjoyed arts and crafts. She remembered how Kotori would always have an art book with her when the two went to University. They always had sketches of clothing and such since she was a fashion major, but nowadays she hasn't had the time to sketch anything.

"I'm back!" she said happily. Umi returned to reality as Kotori reclaimed the seat next to her.

"So what do you think we should put on it?" Umi asked.

Kotori began drawing before Umi could finish her question, "I think it should look something like….. this!" she finished it quickly and held it up to Umi like a child showing their parent a good grade.

Umi read the lettering carefully, "We are in search of new workers, become a part of our team…" she looked at the corner of the page to see a doodle of a bird.

"Kotori? What's this little bird thing in the corner?" she took the paper and pointed it out.

"Oh, that would be me as a bird! Isn't it cute?" she said happily.

Umi flipped the flier back to inspect it once again, "I… guess it's cute? But why did you draw yourself as a bird?" she questioned.

Kotori thought for a second before replying, "Well… Our restaurant name is 'Ocean Flight' and your name is Umi as in Ocean, and I thought I should draw myself as a bird for the 'flight' part," Kotori looked at Umi's uncertain expression. "I-Is it a bad idea?"

Umi jumped and replied, "N-No of course not!" Umi told a little white lie.

"Can I see that pen for a second?" Umi asked. Kotori handed her the pen and she wrote something down. She turned it to show Kotori, "We have to make sure that we provide information like work time and all of that; as well as an interview process."

Kotori nodded, "You're right, we have to make sure that we don't hire the wrong people for the job."

The couple looked over the flier and decided that it will go up first thing tomorrow morning. The two went to bed in anticipation for the next day.

* * *

Kotori woke up and got dressed quickly while Umi was still asleep. She grabbed the flier and raced downstairs to hang it up, "I hope we get some applications~" she said happily. Kotori returned upstairs gleefully to see Umi out of bed getting dressed, she peeked through the door for a couple seconds before bursting in, "Umi, you're awake~!" she dove towards Umi and inevitably missed. Umi simply took a step to the side to dodge the incoming girl.

"I-I'm changing Kotori! Don't do that!" she yelled in response.

Kotori rubbed the bump on her head and whined, "I just wanted to give you a lovely morning hug," Umi finished dressing and offered her hand to the damsel.

"I'm sorry Kotori, will you forgive me?" Kotori took the girl's hand and pulled Umi down causing her to scream.

"Yeah I forgive you now~" Kotori hugged onto a blushing Umi and laughed heartedly.

"C-Come on Kotori," Umi cried, "We have to get ready to open the restaurant," she tried to force herself out of the binding arms.

Kotori gave one last good hug before letting go, "Okay~" she released her grip quickly, causing the blue haired girl to propel backwards a few inches. Umi got up and massaged her lower back,

"Jeez Kotori…" Umi frowned. Kotori got up and looked apologetic,

"I'm sorry Umi, but I had to," she gave Umi a peck on the cheek and giggled before trotting downstairs.

Umi waited until her face returned to normal before heading down as couple opened up the restaurant and the day carried out as it usually did.

A couple hours had passed into lunchtime and two regulars walked into the restaurant almost routinely greeting the two owners.

"Umi~ Kotori~" a light voiced pronounced, "Elichi and Nontan are here!" the couple turned to be greeted by Nozomi and Eli making their daily lunch appointment.

"Nontan?" questioned Eli.

"Isn't it a cute name?" Nozomi replied.

Eli shrugged and proceeded to their usual table; Nozomi and Kotori follow suit. Kotori sat the two down at their table and asked, "Will it be the usual meals today?" the two nodded in unison and Kotori disappeared to hand their orders to Umi.

Kotori continued to take orders from the other guests until Umi rang the bell to signal Nozomi and Eli's order. She rushed over to pick them up and returned to the two, "Here's the usual~" she set the plates in front of them and turned to continue her work. Before she could, Kotori felt a tug on her skirt and turned to see Eli holding onto it, "U-Umm, is there something wrong Eli?"

Eli let go of the skirt and pointed to the front of the store, "I saw a flier that you two are looking for some workers?"

Kotori turned around to face Eli, "Y-yeah we are," she giggled nervously, "We've been getting very busy lately and thought we could use some help around here." Kotori looked at Eli questioningly, "Are you interested in working here?"

Eli shook her hands and head vigorously, "No, no, no, I already have a job," she laughed uncomfortably, "But my little sister Arisa might be interested in working here,"

Kotori clapped her hands together, "Oh really?!" she took a grab of Eli's hands and thanked her, "Just tell her to show up for an interview and we'll see if she's good for the job," Kotori quickly walked off before Eli could finish.

"W-wait, Kotori!" she yelled. Kotori turned around swiftly to hear what Eli had to say, "W-well, my little sister kind of admires Um-"

"Thanks for the food, Kotori! Tell Umi that it's delicious as always!" Nozomi interrupted.

Eli turned angrily towards Nozomi, "Nozomi! You know that Arisa has a crush on Umi,"

Nozomi began eating her food before speaking, "Yeah, and?"

Eli looked at her in disbelief, "W-what if she causes trouble for Kotori and Umi…?" she leaned in, "What if she… you know… disrupts their relationship?"

Nozomi looked at Eli blankly, "That's what you're worried about?" she continued to eat without continuing.

"O-of course I'm worried about it…" she looked down at her food.

"Elichi, look at them…" Nozomi motioned towards the couple.

Kotori pranced towards Umi gleefully as she handed her the small slip of paper with a smile. Umi blushed and smiled back taking the order.

"Look at how happy they are, even with such a busy restaurant, they're able to still smile through all of it," Nozomi looked at Eli, "that and the cards told me that they have a bond just as strong as ours."

Eli blushed, "Jeez Nozomi, you and your tarot cards…"

Nozomi giggled, "Let's enjoy our meal shall we?" Eli nodded reluctantly and began eating.

The two finished their meal and left their pay, on their way out Eli spoke up, "Kotori! I'll give Arisa a call and tell her to get ready for an interview." Kotori nodded and the two left together.

A ginger haired girl ran through the door just as the other two were leaving, bumping into them, "Ahh sorry! I didn't watch where I was going!"

"Honoka? It's alright, but why are you in such a rush?" asked Eli.

"Eli? Nozomi? I was just rushing over here when I saw the flier and-" the energetic girl paused for a moment before sticking her head back out the entrance doors. "Yukiho! Hurry up!"

An auburn haired girl approached the restaurant unwillingly, "I'm coming…" she groaned.

"Hey Yukiho," Eli greeted. "How has Arisa been doing with her schooling?"

"Hiya Eli, Arisa has been doing fine… I think?" Yukiho scratched her head, "She's still a bit clueless when it comes to anything Japanese, but she is doing really well with other subjects." she laughs nervously, "She even helps me with homework sometimes."

"So, Honoka, why were you in a hurry again?" asked Nozomi.

Honoka rushed past the two and slammed her hand against the flier, "For this!" she exclaimed.

"Oh the hiring flier?" Eli asked, "I was just talking to Kotori myself about getting Arisa to apply for it."

Honoka's eyes lit up as she looked at Yukiho deviously, "You hear that Yukiho~?" she jokingly danced over to her and leaned against the little sister. "Arisa is going to apply too~" Honoka started pushing against Yukiho.

Yukiho sighed with an annoyed look on her face, "Fine! If it'll get you and mom off my back about getting a job then I'll just do it."

Honoka replied with an annoyed tone, "We wouldn't have to if you would've just gotten up and worked around our own shop…" she pushed Yukiho in and bid farewell to Eli and Nozomi, "See you two around!"

"S-stop pushing me Honoka, I'm already here aren't I?" Yukiho shrugged Honoka off.

"Oh, Honoka. Welcome to the restaurant," Umi bowed, "Who is with you now?"

"Hello, my name is Kousaka Yukiho," the girl bowed before Umi. "I'm this loud mouth's sister," she added.

Honoka flashed a displeased look before covering it up with one of her usual smiles.

"She's here to apply for a job!" Honoka boasted before leaning in closer to Umi in a secretive manner, "Hey Umi… So you know how we're friends right…?" she looked around before continuing, "How about you hook up my younger sister with the job?"

Umi sighed and stared back at Honoka, "That wouldn't be fair to the other people who want to apply for the job. I'm sorry but she'll have to apply for it regularly like everyone else."

Honoka's posture slumped as she looked at Umi with her puppy dog eyes, "Pleeeeeease Umi-"

"No!" Umi cut her pleading facade off.

Honoka clicked her tongue and snapped her finger as if her wonderful plan had been ruined.

"Don't you think we should just let her have the job, Umi?" Kotori appeared from the kitchen. "I mean, she is a friend of ours and we haven't exactly had any applications yet other than the consideration of Eli's younger sister."

"Eli has a younger sister?" Umi was surprised.

"Yep. I don't know when she'll be applying but if she's anything like Eli, she might come around later today or tomorrow." Kotori answered back.

Umi brought her hand up to her chin and thought, "Well… I guess if they're friends we can trust them but…"

Kotori took a hold of Umi's hands to reassure her, "Trust me Umi, they'll be great for the job. We also don't have to worry about having to interview any strangers either so what's the harm in hiring the two of them?"

"But, what about the other people that want to apply for the jobs too? Shouldn't we be fair?" Umi was still uncertain.

"Come ooooon, pleeeeease Umi?" Honoka begged. Umi had almost forgotten that Honoka was still around.

"I-I promise that I will work my hardest if you hire me, " Yukiho joined in.

"Umiiii~" Kotori leaned in closer to Umi.

She was cornered and defeated, especially with Kotori begging so much.

"F-fine…" Umi said with a defeated tone.

"Yay!" the trio celebrated in unison as high fives were thrown about.

"I'll text Arisa and tell her the good news," Yukiho said as she pulled out her phone, punching in a quick message before putting it back in her pocket. She moved closer to the counter and took a seat. "So, do we have to go through any training programs or anything of that sort? You know, like how to run the cash register and all that?"

Umi responded with a faint nod of uncertainty, "Well… we haven't really planned on making a training program or anything. We were hoping that whoever applied would already have experience in this kind of business."

"That's no problem!" Honoka interrupted. "Yukiho here ran the cash register a few times when Mom and I couldn't man the sweets shop, you can probably just assign her up front with Kotori."

"That sounds like a good plan, doesn't it Umi?" Kotori added.

"Well, I suppose. But what about Eli's younger sister? The other person we were going to hire needed cooking experience of some sort to help me out in the kitchen." Umi responded.

"Oh… about that…" Yukiho spoke up quietly. "The thing about Arisa is that she's not exactly too keen on Japanese cuisine or culture because she has been living abroad up until a year or two ago."

"We might have a problem then…" Umi brought her hand up to her forehead.

"I-I'm sure she's a quick learner, Umi" Kotori said in attempts to reassure her stressed partner.

"I hope you're right…" Umi responded before looking back at Kotori, "That's enough talk of this, we've got to get back to work. I think some customers are waiting for you to take their orders."

"Ahh!" Kotori yelped, "I completely forgot, I'm sorry." she quickly rushed past the group and returned to taking orders.

Yukiho laughed at Kotori's clumsiness and turned back to Umi, "So, how soon can I start?"

Umi took a look at her wristwatch, "Well… It's lunch time right about now. If you really want to start soon we can have you come in for the evening shift, but that would be too rough on you since it's short notice." She looked worried, "I think tomorrow would be best?"

Yukiho looked back at the busy restaurant, "Does it get much busier than this during the evening?"

"I guess you could say that. We've been so busy running around to take note of it." she replied with a sigh.

"Then I should come in for today's evening shift to lessen your workload," Yukiho offered.

"We couldn't possibly make you do that," Umi begged.

"It's no problem at all! I have nothing planned tonight anyways so I might as well help out my dumb sister's friends." she replied with a cheeky remark.

"Hey, I'm right here," Honoka said with a displeased look.

"I-If you insist… then I'll see you around 5 then." Umi replied.

"Yeah sure, no problem! We should head home now so I'll be back later" announced Yukiho as she dragged Honoka by the collar.

"Eh? Wait! Why do I have to go home? I want to stay here with Umi and Kotori!" Honoka flailed as she yelled.

"Mom needs you to help out with the store remember? You're not getting out of that by spending time here." Yukiho responded sternly.

The loud siblings exited the restaurant with a few concerned stares from the customers. Umi and Kotori awkwardly smiled in response.

Lunchtime passed by without a problem as well as the down time in between lunch and dinner. There were occasional customers that came into the restaurant every now and then, but the couple spent a majority of the time sitting together at the front counter talking about their new employees. There were also the occasional flirtatious advances from Kotori every now and then.

Dinnertime started to roll around and customers began to fill in the restaurant at an alarming rate. It didn't take long before Kotori found herself running from table to table trying her best to take orders as quickly as she could. It wasn't any better on Umi's end either. She was moving as swiftly as she could around the kitchen to get the orders ready. Every few minutes she would be interrupted by the sound of a bell which signaled that Kotori had left a new order onto the existing pile.

Yukiho walked in followed by a smaller blonde haired girl as Kotori took notice.

"Oh Yukiho, you're here." Kotori said while preoccupied with taking orders.

"Woah, you guys look super busy!" Yukiho looked around the bustling restaurant. She quickly took a step to the side with her hands in a presenting gesture, "Oh Kotori, I brought Arisa. Eli's younger sister."

"Ah- Nice to meet you!" Arisa quickly bowed in response to her sudden introduction.

"Nice to meet you too, Arisa" Kotori said without looking back. "I'm sorry for not giving you a proper greeting but we're really busy right now."

"It's okay," she replied gently.

"Umi and I will sit and talk with you once closing time comes around," Kotori walked up to them to take a quick break from taking orders. "Yukiho, you can use the changing room down the hall and to the left to change into the uniform. I don't know if it'll fit but I made it so that it should fit most girls."

Yukiho nodded and followed Kotori's directions. The waitress turned to face Arisa next, "Arisa, I need you to head through those big kitchen doors and work back there with Umi. If you have any problems, just ask her to help out."

Arisa blushed a bit after hearing Umi's name and nodded; promptly taking her leave from the front to the back of the restaurant to meet with Umi.

* * *

Arisa made her way through the big kitchen doors to see a distressed blue haired girl running around the kitchen with multiple dishes in her hand. The girl took notice of Arisa's presence and set down everything that she was holding.

"U-Umm, can I help you? Was there something wrong with your order?" Umi questioned with a self judgemental look.

"Ahh no, there's nothing wrong! I'm not a customer." Arisa raised her hands in defence. "I'm pretty sure anything that you make is perfect… hehe" she took notice of the slip of her tongue and quickly silenced herself.

"O-oh, thank you so much for the compliment" Umi replied with a smile. "But if you're not a customer, what are you doing back here?"

"My name is Ayase Arisa, I'm Eli's little sister. Yukiho said that you two probably needed help tonight so I thought I should come along too." she answered.

"Oh, nice to meet you Arisa. My name is Sonoda Umi, thank you for coming here on short notice." she bowed.

Arisa blushed.

"So, is there anything I can do to help out?" she questioned.

"Yukiho told us that you aren't exactly accustomed to Japanese culture and cuisine yet since you lived abroad until recently," Umi said while Arisa awkwardly rubbed the back of her head.

"Y-yeah, I don't really know that much about everything here yet…" she replied.

"Since that's the case, I think it would be best if you stayed by the front counter to get the orders for me. You can also carry out the orders to Kotori and Yukiho so that I can focus on finishing the orders here," she suggested.

Arisa nodded, "That sounds like a good plan… It'll be a pleasure to work for you two!" she bowed and left the kitchen.

* * *

Arisa stood behind the counter and waited for Kotori to bring the orders just as Umi had told her to do. She looked to the side and saw Yukiho walk out sheepishly in a maid outfit that looked like Kotori's.

"Yukiho! You look so cute in that uniform!" Arisa exclaimed, surprising Yukiho and causing her to jump in response.

"A-Arisa!" Yukiho took a deep breath and clutched her chest. "A-are you sure that this doesn't look… weird on me?"

"I already said that you look super cute in it" Arisa responded in delight.

"T-thanks, I'm not used to wearing really girly stuff like this so…" Yukiho released a sigh of relief.

Kotori walked up to the two and clapped her hands together, "You look wonderful Yukiho! I'm glad that the uniform I made was a good fit on you." She walked behind the counter and got in between the two, "Alright here's how we do things around here, Yukiho. When you take orders, make sure that you greet them with a smile and make sure to wish them a good day. Afterwards, I usually ask if they want some drinks to start off and then I take their meal order…" Kotori continued to describe how to do her job while Yukiho promptly nodded in response.

Kotori took a break and looked at Arisa, "I'm assuming Umi already gave you instructions on what to do?"

Arisa nodded and responded back, "She wants me to take the orders to her and carry them out when she finishes."

"That's good enough for today. I'm sure that Umi would let you work in the kitchen with her and teach you how to cook some of our dishes once you've had some practice." she smiled. Kotori stretched her arms out and patted both of their heads, "I look forward to working with the two of you~" She pushed Yukiho a bit, "Lets get to work shall we Yukiho?"

Yukiho nodded earnestly and the two of them went off to take orders. It took Yukiho some time getting used to the large crowd, but they embraced her with warm welcomes regardless of her inexperience.

Arisa watched from the back of the counter with a smile while the two waitresses handed her the orders. Every time Arisa received an order, she would walk through those large kitchen doors to a wonderful sight of Umi concentrating on cooking the dishes. The fire that blazed in her eyes, the sweat beading on her forehead. Her wonderful hands moved around gracefully like a conductor orchestrating a beautiful sonata. This was a sight that Arisa wished she could see forever.

"Here are the next batch of orders, " Arisa sheepishly walked up next to Umi and placed the orders on the counter.

"Thank you Arisa, also, I don't mind if you call me Umi," she wiped the sweat from her forehead using her forearm, "I'm used to being called Umi more than my last name." she tilted her head slightly and smiled.

"Y-yes! U-Umi…" Arisa looked down in embarrassment. She felt something pat the top of her head and looked up.

"You're doing really well for your first day on the job! I'm glad that Kotori pushed me into hiring you two. Things are going a lot more smoothly without me having to constantly run in and out of the kitchen." she leaned against the counter for a small break.

"I'm glad that I can be of help, Umi!" Arisa said cheerfully.

Umi pushed herself off of the counter with a confident cry of enthusiasm, "Alright, time to get back to work!" she left Arisa alone by the counter and continued her work as she did before. Arisa smiled and skipped through the doors to wait for more orders to come by.

* * *

The restaurant remained busy as the night went on. Satisfied customers left the restaurant as hungry ones quickly replaced them. Yukiho was a hit with the customers and Kotori couldn't help but love how accepting everyone in the restaurant was.

Arisa remained behind the counter, overlooking the restaurant when she spotted a peculiar man walking in. He had a rather unkempt scruff, his suit was dirty and very much loose. The collar was unbuttoned and the tie was crooked and untidy. From a glimpse, it seemed that every customer that he passed had held their breath. He must have reeked of alcohol or something because of his abnormal walking pattern.

"T-T-Table… fer one pls…" the man said as he walked up to Yukiho.

"R-right this way sir…" Yukiho carefully guided him to an empty table and handed him a menu. "I'll be back once you've gotten your order decided, sir."

Yukiho retreated from the man rather quickly and went to grab Kotori by the arm, "Umm… Kotori? There's a man here who doesn't really seem… You know… Like he shouldn't be out in public." she held her nose, "He reeks of alcohol."

Kotori took a quick peek to see the man slumped over in his chair looking around dazed and confused at the restaurant and other customers. She could see the other customers making an effort to avert their gazes from the man while the ones close to him brought something up to their nose to cover his scent. It was obvious that the man should be at home but Kotori was against kicking out someone who is unintentionally making others uncomfortable. Kotori took a deep breath and walked up to the man, "Hello sir, fun night of drinking huh?"

"You betcha!" the man cackled loudly.

"How may I help you today?" Kotori pulled out her little notebook as usual.

"Gimmie the best dish you've got!" the man said in a triumphant tone.

"Alright, we'll have your order ready in a bit." Kotori nodded and handed the order to Arisa.

Yukiho and Kotori proceed with their normal routine while keeping an eye on the man. He seemed to be looking around the entire restaurant as if trying to remember something. Occasionally his eyes would meet with Kotori which caused him to quickly avert his gaze. There was something weird about the man, but neither Kotori or Yukiho could come up with a valid conclusion.

Arisa pushed herself through the doors and rang the bell, signalling Yukiho to come and pick it up.

"This one is for the man over there," she pointed to the strange man.

"Just my luck…" she whispered under her breath and put on a smile. Yukiho braced herself and walked up to the man with a gleeful facade, "Here you are sir, your meal has arrived." she placed it down in front of the man.

"Ah finally! I heard good things about this restaurant and I'm looking forward to this," the man grabbed his tableware and began to eat the food rather quickly and aggressively.

Yukiho moved over to the side to avoid any incoming projectiles of spit and food, "I'll be back later to give you the bill." she turned to move away from the man but felt a tug on her skirt. She turned around to see the man holding onto her. "I-Is there something you need, sir?"

The man inspected Yukiho from head to toe, "You know…" he swallowed the food that remained in his mouth, "You're a pretty good looking girl, how old are you?"

Yukiho quickly ripped herself away from the man, "I'm not 18, I can tell you that much."

The man snickered, "I've heard that many times before, you're not fooling me"

"Please just finish your food and leave, sir" Yukiho tried her best to keep herself from hitting the guy. The man got up which caused Yukiho to take a few steps back. He staggered as he walked towards Yukiho, "I'm warning you, I'll call the police if you don't stop!" she yelled in defence.

"You wouldn't do that," the man kept pressing.

Yukiho backed up until she saw someone come between them.

It was Kotori.

"Sir, I'm against throwing people out of my restaurant, but what you're doing is going too far." Kotori spoke strongly, "If you don't sit back down and finish your food, then I will have to escort you out of the restaurant."

The man clicked his tongue, "How is a small girl like you gonna force me out of the restaurant?" he chuckled a bit.

Arisa was watching nervously until Kotori had stepped up. The man was much larger than Kotori and there was no way Kotori would be able to intimidate the man from leaving. She shuffled nervously in place trying to think of what to do before quickly disappearing into the kitchen.

"U-Umi, something bad is happening in the restaurant!" Arisa yelled.

Umi stopped working immediately and washed her hands, "What's going on?"

"There's this strange man who walked in several minutes ago and he was hitting on Yukiho, so now Kotori is trying to-" Arisa stopped when she saw Umi pass her the second she mentioned Kotori.

Umi pushed through the doors to observe the scene. Every customer in the restaurant turned their seats to face the conflict and Umi followed their gazes to see Kotori standing in between Yukiho and a man larger than her. She looked back to see Arisa behind her, "So what's going on with this man?" she asked.

"Well, he walked in here and it seems that he's rather drunk. Then he pulled on Yukiho's skirt in attempts to pick her up. Yukiho got a bit defensive and now Kotori is trying to get him to sit down. She said that she would be forced to kick him out if he doesn't comply but…" Arisa shook a little.

Umi grasped Arisa's shoulders to help calm her down, "Don't worry Arisa, let me handle this. I need you to do a favor for me though, just in case things go wrong." Umi whispered something into her ear and Arisa disappeared into the hallway.

Umi took a deep breath and walked around the counter.

"Listen here girlie-" the man was cut off by a voice from behind.

"Is there something I could help you with, sir?"

The man turned around to see Umi who had her arms crossed.

"Who are you? Another employee?" he inspected Umi.

"I'm the manager and cook of this restaurant, now I ask again, is there something I could help you with, sir?" Umi placed emphasis on the question.

The crowd watched silently, surprised with Umi's sudden appearance. It was normal to see Umi every once and a while in the restaurant, but most of the time they would only spot her when she comes out of the kitchen to pick up an order before returning to it. Now that she was actually standing somewhere else other than behind the counter, the crowd could feel a strange aura radiating off of her. Umi was known to be a bit strict, but something about her posture and eyes spelled out something much more harsh, something that no customer had seen.

"Please have a seat, sir." Umi gestured to an empty chair.

"And what if I don't?" the man replied with a harsh tone.

"I'll be forced to make you leave." she said bluntly.

The man let out a snarkish laugh that echoed through the silent restaurant. Umi wasn't any much taller than Kotori, in fact, they were practically the same height. Umi was slimmer than Kotori and if the man thought Kotori was small, then Umi must have looked no more smaller than her.

"You're no smaller than this girl right here," he reached back and grabbed Kotori by the arm, pulling her forward with enough force to make her lose her balance. She would have fallen on the floor if it wasn't for Umi's quick reaction.

Umi helped Kotori up to her feet, "Are you okay, Kotori?" she nodded with a weak voice,

"Yeah, I'm alright…" she stood up and hid behind Umi.

Umi stared straight into the man's eyes, "Leave now, or you will regret this mistake." her voice was strong, it resonated throughout the restaurant and even caused some of the customers to move back a bit.

"And what're you gonna do about it? Push me out? I'd like to see you try!" the man boasted with confidence, "If anything, you can't be any better than that girl behind you."

Umi clenched her fist a bit as Kotori tapped her shoulder, "Umi, don't do anything too harsh…" she nodded and the tension in her fist began to relax. She cleared her throat and spoke up,

"I don't take kindly to strangers bad mouthing my fiance," Umi stepped up and kept her stare on the man, "You've overstayed your welcome in this restaurant, now leave."

"Umi!" she heard the call of her name from behind and everyone's attention shifted to the small blonde girl holding an elongated object wrapped in cloth. "I found the item that you wanted," she rushed over and handed it to Umi.

The man stepped back a bit, "W-what is that?"

Umi began untying the string that held the cloth together, "If you don't want to find out, I suggest you leave."

The man, unwilling to give up his pride stood strong, "I ain't scared!"

"I see…" Umi responded coldly and unwrapped the cloth to reveal an old kendo shinai that she had kept around after she graduated high school.

The man snickered to hide some of his fear, "What? Just an old kendo shinai? Is that the best you've got?"

Umi held the shinai by the handle and shifted into the stance that she had been training under for most of her life, "This is your last chance, sir."

The man clicked his tongue and turned away from Umi, "This is a waste of my time anyways. You two better watch out," and left the restaurant.

A few moments after the man left, some applause and compliments were thrown at Umi's success in getting the man to leave the restaurant. She took a deep breath and placed down her shinai, turning to Kotori, "Are you sure you're okay?" she inspected Kotori from head to toe.

Kotori laughed awkwardly, "I told you I'm fine Umi, you don't have to worry so much."

"Don't say that, of course I would be worried if you were to be hurt!" Umi yelled.

A silence fell upon the restaurant as Umi started to blush. She had totally forgotten that she was out in public and openly expressed her feelings for Kotori.

"You're lucky to have a fiance that cares for you so much" said one of the customers.

"I wish someone as cool as Umi could be my fiance," said another.

She blushed even more and scratched her cheek before quickly disappearing into the kitchen. Kotori looked at the audience and blushed a bit before getting back to work with Yukiho.

"Umi was so cool," Yukiho whispered to Kotori. "Is that why you fell for her?"

"EHH?!" Kotori yelped and paused, "W-we can talk about that another day. Time to focus on work~ on work~" she poorly shrugged Yukiho's question off. Yukiho giggled a bit at the flustered Kotori and went back to work.

Arisa sighed a breath of relief and reassumed her position behind the counter.

* * *

Umi walked to the front of the restaurant and flipped the sign to signal that they're closed. She turned around and walked over to the counter where she and Kotori would always talk before heading off to do their own work for the restaurant. This time they were joined by Yukiho and Arisa.

"I'm sorry for causing a problem today," Yukiho blurted out abruptly.

"No, no it's fine," Kotori replied by patting her back.

"It's not your fault," Arisa reassured.

"It was his own doing to begin with. Don't feel guilty about someone else's actions that you can't control," Umi added.

Yukiho's expression began to lift as she heard the others' encouragement. She looked at them with a smile and the rest of them sighed in relief.

"Oh yeah, Arisa, we never got to have a proper introduction, so we should do one now!" Kotori suggested.

"Oh! I almost forgot about that," Arisa replied and stood up, "Nice to meet the both of you, I'm Ayase Arisa, Eli's sister" she bowed, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you two!"

Umi and Kotori smiled.

"I'm Minami Kotori, it's a pleasure to be working with you!" Kotori said happily.

"We already had our short introductions, but it's nice to finally have a helping hand in the kitchen," Umi added.

"I look forward to working with everyone for as long as I can!" Arisa said in excitement. She began to look a bit curious, "I've been meaning to ask, but after that whole thing happened today; I didn't know that you knew Kendo, Umi!"

Umi rubbed the back of her neck, "Y-yeah, I've been doing it for a long time now."

"How long? and why?" Yukiho added.

Umi laughed nervously, "I don't really like talking about it often, but I guess I can let it slide since you two have been such great help today." she cleared her throat before continuing. "So when I was growing up, my parents owned a dojo that taught kendo and archery. It was inevitable for me to learn the two because they were my parents. They always boasted about, 'Umi is going to be the one to inherit the dojo' and all of that. But as you can guess by me being here, I wasn't too thrilled about having to inherit it. So I focused on my studies, went to University, and moved out here with Kotori. My parents and I aren't exactly on the best terms since they believe that I've abandoned them, but I guess I just have to hold out until they come around,"

She paused for a moment before continuing, "That's basically the story behind it, I came from a very traditional family that owned a dojo," she looked at Arisa, "So I'm as traditional as they come… I guess"

Kotori nodded, "Mhmm, but not only is Umi really good at kendo, but she is great at archery as well. She can also play the nagauta, is good at calligraphy and she even knows some traditional dances!"

Yukiho and Arisa clapped their hands at Umi's versatility.

Yukiho snuck her way into the conversation and looked at Kotori mischievously, "So… Kotori~ Tell us why you fell for Umi!"

"Uweh?!" Kotori's face flared up to Yukiho's outburst and Umi had a small blush as well. She cleared her throat before speaking, "W-well-" her voice cracked, "We had met at a university in Tokyo a few years ago and we ended up sharing an apartment together- that's how most of it started anyways," she paused and thought for a moment.

"I don't really know what it was that drew me in closer to Umi. She always looked like the the distant and chivalrous type of girl, you know, the one that is always nice to you but doesn't exactly express their feelings to you. I'll have to admit that it was her cool demeanor that really drew me into her at first. However, when we eventually spent most of our time together, I learned that she's a big spaz when it comes to romance and that stuff. I always thought that this side of Umi was really cute and it made me fall for her even harder."

Yukiho and Arisa were affixed by Kotori's description of why she fell for Umi. However, Umi on the other hand was hiding her face in embarrassment.

"She may seem cool and calm on the outside, but she's really just a big spaz and I love that about her!" Kotori exclaimed happily. Yukiho and Arisa gasped in the way most people would react to something cute or romantic.

Umi kept her face hidden as the attention of the others shifted to her.

"What about you, Umi? What made you fall for Kotori?" Yukiho asked deviously.

"O-oh! It's time for you two to go home, Kotori and I have to do some work before sleeping," she laughed nervously trying to shake them off by pointing at the clock.

"That stuff can wait can't it, Umi?" Kotori begged with her usual puppy eyes.

It only took one glance for Umi to give in, "Th-thats no fair Kotori…" she hung her head dejectedly.

The group inched closer to Umi as she cleared her throat and loosened her clothing a bit to keep herself from sweating in front of them, "W-well… I umm…" she looked at Kotori who was staring back. This caused her to avert her gaze, regardless of how much time she spent with Kotori she couldn't find it in herself to easily express what she loved about her. "When I saw Kotori I just thought that… she was really cute… and stuff…" she peeked back to see the girls eager to hear more,

"And?" Yukiho forced Umi to continue.

"Wasn't that enough?" Umi pleaded. She felt the heavy stares of the girls and sighed, "Well… Kotori was just so… cute. She always greeted me with this smile that made my heart skip a beat. And her soft and cheerful voice would always linger in my mind whenever we weren't together." she listened for any responses but things were silent. Umi assumed that they wanted to hear more, "I guess you could say that she's like a small bird. Something that is so tiny and gentle that you want to do everything you can to protect it. I couldn't help but want to stay by her side. She's so gentle and so caring and to be honest, I think that if it wasn't for Kotori. I'd be off somewhere in an office job stressing myself about getting work done, so…" Umi smiled and turned to the other girls.

Kotori's face had become beet red while Arisa and Yukiho sat with gaped expressions.

"U-Umi, I didn't expect you to say so much!" Kotori yelled out all flustered.

"That totally took me by surprise!" Yukiho responded.

"Is this what it's like to be in love?" Arisa questioned to herself.

Umi had completely gotten carried away and her blush started to build up as well, "A-Anyway! It's time for you two to head back home! It's dangerous out here at night for a girl," she got up and practically pushed the girls out of the door. "See you two tomorrow!" Umi closed the door and quickly locked it.

She placed her back against the door and let out a sigh. She pushed herself off and walked towards Kotori with a blush, "I'm going to go work in the office for a bit…" promptly heading for the kitchen.

"I-I'll clean up around here…" Kotori looked away blushing while clutching onto a cleaning rag by her chest.

As usual, the two independently carried out their duties and met at the counter when they had finished.

"Hey Umi? What are you going to do about that shinai?" Kotori asked while pointing at Umi's old kendo gear leaning against the wall.

"I guess we can keep it behind the counter in case anything else like today happens again," Umi walked over to the object and picked it up, placing it underneath the counter.

"I hope nothing like today happens again for a while. That was kind of scary," Kotori responded while hugging onto Umi.

Umi responded by patting Kotori's head, "I'll make sure to do my best to protect you and everyone else."

Kotori kissed Umi's cheek and started to pull her by the arm, "Hey Umi, you know… After Yukiho forced us to bring up our reasons for loving each other…" she blushed, "I kind of feel like we should have one of our special nights" she hid her face from Umi.

Umi was taken by surprise at Kotori's proposal and felt her heart race, "K-Kotori?!" she couldn't find the right words to respond with other than saying her name in question.

"I-It's okay if you don't want to…" Kotori still hid her face until she felt a soft grasp on her wrist. She looked back to see Umi looking back at her intensely. The two nodded and turned off the lights downstairs, heading back up to their room.

They entered their room quietly, "Let me go freshen up a bit," Kotori said as she detached herself from Umi's arm. "You wait here on the bed and relax," she smiled and left to the bathroom.

Umi took a seat on their bed and turned on the tv to put on some background noise. She got up and started to change into her sleepwear, "Today sure was tough for the restaurant…" Umi thought back to what happened. She slipped on her shirt and tied her hair into a ponytail. She looked at herself in the mirror to make sure that she was somewhat presentable to Kotori,

"Not like she would really care, she always says that I look beautiful no matter how terrible I look," she laughed awkwardly to herself in the mirror. She shifted her eyes to the side of the mirror to see what was on the news. Apparently there had been some shady people walking around town recently which would help explain the incident that happened earlier tonight. The lights over her head began to flicker,

"Hmm… that's strange, these bulbs should be new shouldn't they," she squinted her eyes to the flickering lights, "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go out and buy new ones tomorrow."

Umi picked up her brush and began grooming her hair, "I wonder how long Kotori will take…"

She turned around and made her way to the bed when she abruptly lost her vision as everything went black, "What? A power outage?" she carefully navigated herself through the room, using her hands as a guide until she reached a window. "That's strange… It's not storming and I'm pretty sure they aren't doing any work around here at this hour…" Umi thought quietly for a few moments. "Maybe this could be one of Kotori's tricks?" she waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark before she moved.

"Umi?!" a small voice cried out.

"Was that Kotori?" Umi looked around the room to see if she could spot her, "She's not here… Is she hiding behind the door?" she made her way carefully towards their bedroom door when her ears picked up heavy footsteps.

"Umi?! You better not be playing a prank on me! It's dark and scary in the bathroom!" the voice continued.

It took a few moments for Umi to piece together what was happening. The two of them were separated. The power had been cut off. It wasn't planned by Kotori, and there were heavy footsteps in the home. It was practically obvious that it was a break in and there was an intruder in the house. Worst of all, Kotori was alone.

Umi listened closely to the footsteps. The steps seem to be coming from downstairs which still gives her the time to reach Kotori across the upstairs hallway. She opened the bedroom door as silently as she could and crept down the corridor. It took a few short moments before Umi reached the bathroom. She knocked on the door lightly and whispered, "Kotori, are you in there? It's Umi,"

The door opened slightly and Umi slid in quickly, feeling a wet hug behind her, "Umi? What's going on?"

Umi felt Kotori's soft body pressed up against her and blushed a bit. Kotori must have been too frightened and caught up in the moment to get dressed, "A-are you still naked, Kotori?"

She shook her head, "I grabbed the shirt I was going to wear but forgot to dry myself off before putting it on."

Umi sighed in relief but quickly regained her focus, "Kotori, I think someone broke into the house." she felt around the bathroom, "Is there anything in here that we can use as a weapon?" Kotori helped in the search and held something up to Umi.

"Um, we have this plunger?" she suggested.

"I don't think that would be effective, Kotori," Umi replied plainly and looked up, "Hey how about the shower railing?"

Kotori followed Umi's gaze and gasped, "That could work since we have a detachable one!"

Umi reached up carefully removing the shower railing and slid the shower curtain off, "Okay Kotori, hold onto my hand and stay close."

"Mmm!" she nodded and gripped Umi's hand tightly.

Umi slowly opened the door and walked cautiously through the darkness, making sure that Kotori was with her every step of the way. She readied her on-the-spot weapon in the case that they encounter the intruder.

"Hey Kotori, do you have your cellphone on you?" Umi whispered.

"N-no, it died earlier today and I forgot to charge it before taking a shower." she responded sadly.

"That's okay, my phone should be in my pants in our room. If we can make it there, we can call for help." Umi replied quietly and listened for the footsteps again. They were still downstairs and but this time the intruder was making a small racket. She looked back at Kotori, "This is our chance."

Umi pulled Kotori quickly and moved into their room. She weaved through the room swiftly to her pants and reached her hands into the pockets.

Nothing.

"Oh no… I must have left my phone down in the office!" Umi yelled under her breath. She blew air through her nose angrily and turned to Kotori, "Listen to me Kotori, I need you to hide in this room until I get back."

Kotori shook her head violently, "No! I want to go with you, I don't want to be alone!"

Umi brought her finger up to her lips, "Shh, we have to be quiet Kotori, or they will find us. Look, look at me." Umi took a hold of Kotori's face and looked into her eyes, "I need you to stay calm, Kotori. You can come with me alright?"

Kotori wiped her eyes and nodded, "Okay…"

"Alright, lets go. Stay behind me and don't let go of my hand." Umi held Kotori's hand firmly.

The couple slipped out of their bedroom and silently descended the stairs. Umi couldn't hear footsteps or the racket from before, only the sound of her heart beating and Kotori's breathing. She couldn't tell where the intruder or intruders were but she had to continue cautiously. Umi reached the bottom of the stairs and peeked through the corner towards the door to the restaurant.

The lock had been broken and the door hung open slightly, "Alright Kotori, remember to stay close." Umi pulled Kotori carefully past the corner.

Kotori's heart was thumping, the only thing she could hear were the thoughts racing through her mind. She could see Umi talking to her, but she couldn't understand quite clearly. The combination of her heartbeats and thoughts threw off all of her focus.

"I-I'm scared Umi-" Kotori's words were ended abruptly as she felt something blunt hit against the back of her head. Her consciousness began to fade quickly as she stumbled to her knees and fell on the floor.

Umi heard the loud thud from behind her and the weight on her hand drastically increased. She turned around to see a large silhouette that appeared to be holding a blunt object shaped like a bat. But more importantly, she looked down to see Kotori passed out on the floor with red staining the back of her ash colored hair.

"KOTORI!" Umi screamed and dropped the shower railing. The silhouette quickly escaped as Umi fell to her knees and held Kotori in her arms,

"KOTORI?! KOTORI?!"


	4. Final Chapter

Honoka awoke to a loud scream in the middle of the night. It caused her to jump and almost fall right out of her bed, "That scream… It came from next door!" she scrambled out to her feet and rushed down the stairs, almost tripping due to her haste. She jumped the last few steps and slid into her shoes. Honoka bursted through her front door and sprinted over to the restaurant, firmly pulling on the doors. They didn't budge no matter how hard Honoka pulled. "I'm stupid! Of course the restaurant doors would be locked," she quickly ran down the small alley between their houses to the back door.

She reached the back and noticed that the door was slightly open. The lock was broken and she could hear a faint crying coming from inside. Honoka approached the door and opened it slowly, carefully taking a peek inside. She spotted a small dark figure low to the ground, but couldn't make out exactly who it was. Honoka took a deep breath and swung the door open gently. She took a step inside and waited for her vision to adjust to the darkness. The moonlight began to illuminate the room.

Honoka inched closer to see that the small figure was actually Umi but something was wrong. She was crying and holding on to something tightly. Honoka waited until she could see and saw that Umi was holding onto Kotori. Her lower body was sprawled outwards and she was held tightly against Umi's chest. In the dark, Honoka could spot something in Umi's hand that was placed over Kotori's head. It was slightly white, but as she looked closer to the center, the white color had become somewhat blackened. Or at least that was what it looked like in the dark.

"U-Umi? What happened?" Honoka called out as she moved closer.

"Hono...ka?" she heard a faint reply.

"Yeah it's me, don't be afraid," she walked over to Umi slowly and got down on one knee. "What happened? Are you two okay?" she asked.

Umi shook her head furiously, "No, everything's not okay!" tears welled up in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks, "Look!" Umi removed the hand that was pressed against Kotori's head to show a bloodied cloth.

Honoka gasped and looked away in response, "H-How did…"

Umi cut her off, "Please… Call for an ambulance. There's a phone behind the counter. I have to stay here with Kotori…" she pleaded before placing the cloth back on the head injury.

"O-Okay!" Honoka got up quickly and went through the door to the restaurant, she flipped the switch to turn on the light but there was no response. She felt around the restaurant until she got her hands on the counter. She moved them carefully until they hit something that felt phone-like. She made sure to dial in the right emergency number, "1… 1… 9…" she brought the phone up to her ear and waited for a response. She waited for a few more moments and there was no answer.

"Crap, the power must have been cut off," Honoka cursed under her breath and reached into her pockets to check if she had her cell phone. She felt a lump in her right pocket and thanked herself under her breath that she remembered to grab it before she left.

"Okay, 119…" she pressed the call button and almost got a response immediately, "Hello?!"

"What's your emergency?" said a woman's voice.

"We need an ambulance right now!" Honoka responded quickly.

"Can I get a location?" the woman replied.

"We're at the Ocean Flight restaurant, please hurry!" she begged.

The woman responded calmly, "We will be there as soon as possible."

Honoka hung up and took a deep breath. She walked through the door to see that Umi hadn't moved an inch from Kotori's side, "They're on their way, Umi."

"Thank you, Honoka… Unlock the front entrance please..." she heard her request quietly.

"I'm going to call the others too, I'll be right back." Honoka went back to the restaurant to contact their friends and opened the front doors.

The ambulance arrived several minutes after and rushed into the building. They gathered around the couple, "Excuse me ma'am, we have to take her from you for a little bit," they said politely.

"Y-yeah…" Umi responded and let Kotori go unwillingly.

"She's got an open wound on the back of her head, bring the stretcher," one of the paramedics yelled.

A stretcher was soon brought through the doors and they carefully placed Kotori down on it. They lifted her up and lead her to the back of the ambulance, "Would you like to ride in the ambulance with us?" a paramedic asked Umi and Honoka.

The two nodded and got onto the ambulance with them.

* * *

The ride was silent.

Umi didn't say a word, all she did was keep an eye on Kotori and held her hand. Honoka was too afraid to bring up what had happened so she stayed quiet until they were in the hospital with everyone else. The hospital wasn't too far off and in about 10 minutes, the ambulance came to a stop. The back doors opened and the paramedics acted quickly to get Kotori into the hospital. Umi followed and ran along the side of the stretcher, unwilling to part with her lover.

"Please step aside ma'am, we need to get her into the emergency room," one of the paramedics gently pushed Umi back as they went through the doors.

Umi stood alone in the empty hallway. She heard gentle footsteps from behind her and turned to see Honoka wearing a worried expression.

"The others should be here soon," she said quietly.

"Who?" Umi asked.

"All of our friends pretty much. Eli, Nozomi, Nico, Rin…" Honoka listed off the names, "Oh! Hanayo is coming too, you haven't met her but she's Rin's wedding planner friend."

"You didn't have to call for all of them," Umi whispered.

Honoka picked up her barely audible words, "Umi we're your friends, of course we want to be here for you two."

Umi smiled a little, "Thanks, Honoka…"

"Let's sit down here and wait for everyone else." Honoka led Umi to a nearby seat. The two girls sat in silence in the dimly lit hallway. They waited until all of their friends showed up before Umi would speak about what happened. Honoka knew that if Umi had to retell the story every time someone showed up, it would take a toll on her and just worsen the damage.

The group gathered around Umi and offered their condolences. She received many pats on the back and reassuring words, but no amount of those would mean anything to her unless she knew that Kotori was alive and well.

"Ahem…" Nico cleared her throat among the crowd, "So… What happened?" The others looked at Nico with disapproving looks but Umi shook her head in response to dispel their responses to Nico.

"We closed up shop before heading up to our room. Arisa and Yukiho kind of got us… in the mood…" she said embarrassingly, "...after they had us talk about why we fell for each other." Umi smiled a bit, "We got to our room and Kotori decided that she wanted to freshen up while I changed from my work clothes to my pajamas." Umi took a deep breath before continuing.

"I was standing in front of our dressing room mirror to make myself look at least presentable to her and that's when the power was cut out."

"That would explain why I couldn't turn on the lights or call the police with the phone on the counter…" Honoka added. Umi nodded her head and continued,

"So I thought that maybe Kotori was playing a trick on me. I thought that she may be playfully attacking me in the dark to add some fun, but then I started hearing heavy footsteps from downstairs. I also heard Kotori yell out from the bathroom," she held her hands together tightly, "I knew then that someone had broken into our home, so I had to get over to Kotori as quickly as possible. She didn't even have time to change as you may have seen, Honoka."

She nodded her head in response.

"So I got Kotori and we went back to our room. Her phone was dead and I forgot mine in our office downstairs. We stepped down the stairs, turned the corner, and that's when Kotori was struck-" Umi choked on her words when she thought back to the horrible sight.

"There, there…" Eli patted Umi's back to help her calm down.

"I'm sure the doctors will do all they can to stop the bleeding, let's just hope that she doesn't have any damage to her brain." Nozomi added.

Umi nodded in response, still teary eyed.

"All we can do is wait, nya," Rin muttered before the hallway was filled with silence.

Hanayo took a seat next to Umi and scooched in closer, "Hello Umi. We haven't met but I'm Koizumi Hanayo, Rin's friend."

"Nice to meet you Hanayo," Umi wiped her tears and forced a laugh, "I'm sorry that we had to meet under these conditions."

Hanayo shook her head, "There's no need to be sorry, it's not your fault that this happened."

Umi remained silent.

* * *

An hour had passed before the group heard the large swinging doors open. Umi looked up to see a slender and slightly taller woman than her. She had shoulder length hair and it was of crimson color.

"Maki?!" Nico blurted out.

"Be quiet, we're in a hospital," she replied quickly. "I'm assuming you're all here for…" she brought up her clipboard to check the name, "Minami Kotori, correct?"

The group nodded simultaneously, "Are any of you part of her family or a spouse?"

Umi stood up and raised her hand, "That would be me, Doctor," She stepped closer to Maki and bowed, "Is she okay? Is Kotori going to be alright?" She couldn't help but keep asking questions.

"Just take it easy, one step at a time," Maki tried to calm Umi down, " is fine." The entire group let out a sigh of relief, "We've stitched the wound closed for now. However, there is some bone fracture from the blunt force that she received and if that isn't taken care of, it can cause bleeding in the brain."

"Well what are you waiting for Maki?! Do the operation!" Nico yelled.

"Would you be quiet?! We can't operate on her without consent from a guardian or spouse. That's why I'm here," Maki handed Umi the clipboard that had a wall of text pertaining to the consent of the operation.

She eagerly signed it and returned the clipboard, "Please, save her."

Maki nodded in response, "Don't you worry, she's in good hands. You can go see her if you want. The operation won't begin until tomorrow."

"I'm glad that I can see her but why can't you start the operation now?" Umi questioned.

"Well, has Type O blood. As you may know, Type O is the universal donor because it can be received by all other blood types for transfusions. However, the only downside to Type O blood is that it can only receive Type O. We're currently running low on the Type O blood supply and we don't have enough for the operation. Not until tomorrow at least." Maki answered all in one go.

"Oh, I see…" Umi hung her head.

"Don't worry, will be fine. I promise. Now go and see her, I'm sure she would be glad to see you." Maki pushed Umi's back gently towards the doors. She nodded in response and proceeded to get to Kotori. The group followed after Umi, "It was nice seeing you too, Nico," Maki added as she passed by. Nico blushed and sped up to catch up with the rest of the group.

Umi pushed against the doors to see a feeble looking Kotori lying in a hospital bed. Her eyes were closed and her chest would bob up and down slowly to a rhythmic pace. Umi inched closer to Kotori while the room slowly filled with one friend after another; the silence of the room was offsetting. All that could be heard was the faint breathing of everyone else in the room and the monitor that would beep every few moments to remind everyone that she was still alive.

Umi brought up a chair and placed herself at Kotori's bedside, gently grasping her hand. Kotori's hand was cold, but there was a slight heat radiating out. It didn't take too long until Umi's hand had warmed hers.

The room waited in silence until a slight groan came from Kotori. Her eyebrows furrowed and her eyes opened slowly. It took a little bit of time for her to regain her senses but Kotori eventually did, "Umi…? Honoka?" she felt a squeeze around her hand and looked down. She saw it entangled with Umi's and she smiled.

"Kotori are you okay? How are you feeling?" Umi asked promptly.

"I've had better days…" Kotori let out a dry laugh and sat up.

"D-Don't force yourself okay?" Umi rubbed Kotori's back gently.

"Don't worry, Umi. I'll be fine," she smiled and looked across the room, "Everyone is here too?"

Umi nodded and signaled the others to move in a bit closer.

"Oh this is um… I'm sorry, what was your name again? H-Hayane Kozumi?" Umi barely muttered the name knowing that she was probably way off the mark.

"It's Koizumi Hanayo" the girl laughed a in response before moving to the other side of Kotori's bed. She bowed and held her hand out for Kotori to shake, "I'm sorry that we had to meet under these circumstances."

Kotori shook her head slightly, "There's no need for you to be sorry, you did nothing wrong," she smiled back.

"I suppose you're correct… Anyways, I'm Rin's friend. I'm sure she mentioned me before?" she tilted her head to her own question.

"Of course I did, nya~" Rin popped out from behind Hanayo and wrapped her arms around her, "Did you think I would forget to mention someone as amazing as Hanayo? You're like my dearest friend and best wedding planner around, nya~" Rin rubbed her cheek against Hanayo's.

"Well it's nice to meet you, Hanayo. My name is Minami Kotori" she made a small bowing gesture in response. She started coughing and looked over to the side.

"Can I have some water?" she asked with a dry voice. Umi let go of her hand and looked around. There was a glass and a pitcher of water on a small table pushed up against the corner of the room. She got up and poured a glass for Kotori.

"Here," Umi held the glass carefully and brought it up to Kotori's mouth. Her lips wrapped around the edge of the glass cup and Umi tipped it slowly so Kotori could drink without going too fast or too slow.

Kotori finished the glass of water and let her lips go. Umi poured another glass and set it on the table next to the bed before grabbing a hold of Kotori's hands again, "Thank you, Umi."

"Anything for you, Kotori..." she gently massaged Kotori's hands and looked into her eyes. She made a sad face and Kotori picked up on it.

"What's wrong, Umi?" she asked.

"Well... I'm sure they haven't told you yet, but you're going to have an operation," Umi tried to say those words as calmly as she could. She made sure to sound neutral so that Kotori wouldn't panic.

"Operation? For what?" Kotori tilted her head in question.

"There are bone fractures in your brain from the head trauma, so they need to remove those or else your brain will bleed internally," Umi continued to explain this to her in a calm manner.

She surprisingly took it well, "I hope they can fix me up and get me back to normal soon," she smiled.

Umi couldn't help but smile back after seeing Kotori's. It was amazing how she could remain so calm under such a stressful situation. She could handle things like this much better than Umi could.

"Hey Umi, we're going to head out,"

Umi turned around to see Eli and Nozomi by the doorway, "Okay, thank you guys so much for coming out this late at night... it means a lot," She got up and bowed to them.

"We're your friends, we'll be here when you need the support," Nozomi said as she smiled.

Eli waved goodbye, "Get well soon, Kotori. The restaurant won't be the same without you until you get back."

Kotori waved back and the two disappeared into the darkness of the hallway.

"It's about time we get up and leave too," Rin & Hanayo stood up next.

"Okay then, thank you so much for coming too," Umi thanked the two and bowed.

"It's no biggie, nya," Rin tried to play the situation off more casually.

"I'll make sure to visit often," Hanayo added before they disappeared like Eli and Nozomi had a few moments ago.

Umi faced Nico and Honoka, "Are you two going to leave as well? It's really late."

Honoka looked over to Nico and they both nodded, "Yeah we should get going too, I wish you two the best of luck."

Honoka and Nico left together, leaving Kotori and Umi alone in the hospital room. Umi stood up and gently kissed Kotori, "I thought I lost you back there..."

Kotori held onto Umi's hand, "I'm not leaving you alone any time soon," she smiled.

Umi smiled back and leaned her head against her arm, "I'm just glad that you're still here with me, I don't know what I'd do without you."

Kotori brought up her hand and stroked Umi's long hair, "I'm glad too..."

She continued to brush Umi's hair until she heard a rhythmic breathing next to her. Umi had fallen asleep already, "I must have worried you sick..." Kotori leaned her head back against the pillow and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Umi woke up the next morning and rubbed her eyes. She pushed herself up and sat straight, taking a hold of the extra blankets and covering Kotori. The door behind her opened and the same doctor from last night stood by the doorway, she motioned Umi to take a step out into the hallway.

Umi did as she was signaled to and quietly left the room, making sure she wouldn't wake up Kotori.

"Good morning, Doctor," Umi bowed.

"Good morning to you too," Maki shuffled through some papers on her clipboard and presented them to Umi, "So we need to see any form of health insurance that you have before we calculate the bill."

Umi patted herself down in search for her wallet but nothing came up. Now that she noticed, she was still in her pajamas from the night before. Her wallet was in her work pants back at home.

"Ahh, I left our insurance card at home..." Umi frowned.

"That's unfortunate, how far away is your residence from this hospital?" Maki asked.

"I think... maybe 10 minutes by car?" Umi made a rough estimate.

"Hmm..." Maki brought her pen up to her chin and thought, "I'm assuming you don't want to leave your spouse alone during this time, do you have anyone that could deliver the card for you?"

Umi thought for a moment, "I guess I can ask Honoka to get it for me..."

"There is a phone over at the end of the hallway, come back to me when you're finished," Maki clicked her pen and took a seat at a nearby bench.

Umi briskly jogged to the phone and dialed in Honoka's number.

"Mmm... Hellooo?" A sleepy voice picked up the phone.

"Honoka? Are you awake?" she asked.

"Umi...?" She heard the sound of bedsheets being shifted around, "I am now."

"Great, can you please do Kotori and I a favor?" Umi held the phone close to her ear, "Can you go into our home and up to our room, my work pants should be in there with my wallet, if you can bring that down here, that would be wonderful."

Honoka yawned and rubbed her eyes, "Yeah sure, give me like... 30 minutes or so and I'll be there."

"Thank you so much, Honoka," Umi unconsciously bowed as she thanked her friend. She hung up and placed the phone back where it belonged. She turned around and made her way back down the hallway to where Maki was waiting.

Umi sat next to her, "She'll be here in half an hour, she said."

"That's great, once we get your insurance information, we should be able to calculate how much they can cover and how much you have to pay," Maki explained.

Umi took a deep breath and calmed herself down, "Just hypothetically... if we didn't have insurance, how much would the medical bill cost?"

Maki thought for several seconds before answering, "Without insurance, it could run you around 260,000 - 1,500,000 yen."

"O-one and a half million?" Umi repeated the number in shock.

"That however is only in extreme cases such as brain tumor removal, in Kotori's case, it shouldn't reach that high of an amount," she addressed.

"And if our health insurance helps out?" Umi asked.

"They will have you copay anywhere between 10 to 50 percent of the total cost meaning that the lowest amount you would have to pay would be around... 26,000 yen"

Umi scratched her head in distress, if Kotori's medical bill was going to be this high, they would have to spend almost all of what they have saved up over the past few months. If it ends up being higher, Umi would have to work even harder to pay for the bills on time.

Umi waited with Maki outside of Kotori's room until Honoka arrived.

"I'm here!" Honoka speed walked herself down the hall and handed Umi her wallet.

"Thank you Honoka, I don't know what we would do without you," she smiled and grabbed the wallet from Honoka's hand.

She dug into it and pulled out a small insurance card that she handed over to Maki.

"I'll be back in a few minutes," she walked off with the card and left the two women alone in the hall.

"How is Kotori doing?" Honoka asked.

"She's still asleep, I think," Umi creaked the door open to check up on her. She was still asleep on the bed and Umi gently closed the door shut.

The two women took a seat on the nearby bench and waited for Maki to return. Shortly after, Maki came back to report how much had to be paid for Kotori's surgery.

"So good news is that your insurance will cover the cost of the surgery, however you will have to copay 20 percent of the total," she explained.

"Okay... How much are we going to end up paying?" Umi asked.

"The bill for her surgery adds up to 320,000 yen, so you will have to pay 64,000," Maki stated.

"S-sixty four thousand?" Umi muttered the amount to herself.

"Hey Umi, will you be able to pay for that?" Honoka whispered.

Umi swallowed and replied back, "Y-yeah, but that would completely drain our entire savings account and a good portion of the restaurant's funds..."

"Umi..." Honoka reached out to pat Umi's back.

She shook her head and slapped herself awake, "Give me a few days to transfer our funds from our savings to our checking account, please."

"Sure thing, we'll continue with the operation as planned then," Maki clicked her pen and put it in her pocket.

"Thank you for everything," she bowed and waited until Maki left the floor.

"I've got to head back to the store, I'll come visit later," Honoka said.

Umi waved her goodbye and made her way back into Kotori's room. She took a seat next to the bed, "I need to look at how much we have and how much we can take out of the restaurant's budget…" she thought to herself.

"...Umi?" Kotori called out, "Good morning."

Umi looked up and saw Kotori smiling at her, "Good morning, Kotori, how are you feeling?"

"My head hurts a little but I'm for the most part fine," she answered back.

Umi took a hold of Kotori's hand and massaged it like she always did to help comfort her little bird, "I have to head back home for a few hours."

Kotori nodded and smiled, "Okay."

"I'll be back before the surgery, I promise," Umi leaned in to kiss Kotori's cheek and got up. She waved back at Kotori as she left and closed the door behind her. She made her way out of the hospital and walked back home.

It was about a 30 minute walk and she reached the front of their restaurant. It took Umi a lot of willpower to walk through the back door and see Kotori's blood on the ground. Their back entrance hung wide open and Umi walked over to close it, only for it to swing back. The mechanism had broken so there way no way to keep the door closed.

She sighed and made her way upstairs to get a change of clothes, she was still wearing her sleepwear so she needed something nice for when she visits the bank. She put on her usual dress shirt and pants and made her way down the stairs, making sure to avoid Kotori's blood. She then made her way into the restaurant's office and grabbed the financing book from inside the desk.

When she was all ready, Umi made her way to the bank that the two used. When she arrived, the bank had just opened up and she was immediately given a representative to talk to, "Hi, I would like to check the funds on my account."

"Sure thing, ma'am, just give me a second to pull up your balance…" Umi waited and watched as the representative typed in Umi's information, "Your current balance in your checking account is 140,000 yen and the balance on your savings account is 50,000 yen."

"Okay… hmm…" Umi pulled out the financing book that she brought along and showed it to the representative, "I need to subtract our monthly maintenance and stocking from our checking account so how much would this leave me at?"

"A little over 6,000 yen," the representative replied.

"Can you transfer the funds in my savings account over to my checking account?" Umi asked politely.

"Sure thing, ma'am," the representative typed in a few commands, "It should be added to your checking account within 3 business days."

"Thank you," Umi got up and shook the representative's hand.

"It was a pleasure, have a great day ma'am," the representative shook Umi's hand in return.

"56,000 yen… That isn't enough for Kotori's surgery," Umi thought to herself, "Where am I going to get the last 8,000?" she continued her train of thought as she walked, "I could just keep the restaurant open but I don't have enough time... "

Umi thought hard but came to a conclusion that she really did not want to end up at, "I… guess I could ask Father…" she took a deep breath. Ever since she decided to pursue a career in business instead of inheriting the dojo, her father had been very "disappointed" with her.

Umi sighed and check the time on her wristwatch, if she could make it to the train station before 12pm, she would arrive at her parent's home by 2pm. Umi shook her head and braced herself, "It's for Kotori!"

Umi picked up her pace and headed for the train station. She got a ticket and was en route back to her hometown, the trip would take an hour and a half so Umi got comfortable while she could.

* * *

The train came to a stop and Umi made her way off and onto the platform. The station was quiet and wasn't as busy as the one earlier, she couldn't remember the last time she had been in a place so calm as this. Umi drew a mental map in her head and made her way to her parent's home.

Umi stood in front of a large home with the nameplate reading, "Sonoda Dojo" she gulped and pushed the buzzer. A motherly voice came out of the intercom, "I'm sorry, we're closed for today."

"M-Mother? It's me..." Umi replied awkwardly. She heard the intercom hang up and a door swinging wide open. When she looked towards the front door she saw her mother running at her.

"Umi! Is that really you?!" her mother rushed to the front gate and opened it up. She embraced Umi tightly and gave her a good look, "You've grown up so much since we last saw you."

Umi laughed awkwardly, "I missed you too, Mother."

Her mother hugged her even tighter, "What are you doing back home?"

"I have a favor to ask Father and you," Umi replied.

Her mother let go, "What is it?"

"Umm… Is Father still mad at me?" Umi asked shyly.

Her mother frowned, "He is a stubborn man…"

She took that answer as a yes and hung her head, "It's an emergency…"

Her mother took a hold of Umi's hand and guided her into the home. They walked into the living room to see Umi's father on the couch reading a newspaper.

"Your daughter came home," her mother called out.

Her father stayed silent for a few moments before speaking up, "I don't allow people who refuse to uphold the Sonoda name in this household."

"Don't be like that!" her mother yelled.

"Instead of inheriting the dojo, she decided to run away with her own selfish desires!" his voice was powerful and it struck fear across her mother's face.

"Father! Please hear me out!" Umi yelled.

Her father lowered the newspaper to see Umi on her knees bowing with her head practically touching the ground.

"At least you still remember how to show respect, what is it that you need?" her father set down the newspaper and gave his attention to her.

Umi kept her head down, she knew that if she were to get too comfortable in front of her father too quickly, it could end up backfiring on her.

"I came the borrow some money," Umi finally said.

"Borrow money? Why? Is your little "business" not working out for you?" her father mocked.

"Don't say such things to your daughter!" her mother protested.

Her father chuckled with a hint of disgust, "What is so important for you to come running back here to ask for money?"

"I need it to help pay for my wife's surgery," Umi announced.

"Ahh yes... that Minami girl..." his voice had a distasteful tone.

"Is Kotori okay?" her mother asked.

"She's okay, but she needs surgery or else she'll end up in worse shape," Umi explained.

"I refuse," her father stated.

"Father please!" Umi raised her voice.

"My answer is final! I will not help my daughter pay for the woman that corrupted her!" his voice was powerful, but Umi refused to give up.

"I met Kotori after I decided to pursue business, she did nothing wrong!" Umi yelled back.

"That still doesn't change the fact that she is keeping you away from becoming the heir to the Sonoda Dojo," he fought back.

Umi took a deep breath and yelled, "This is the last thing I will ask of you as a Sonoda!"

"What do you mean by that?" her father's voice became less aggressive.

"I will become a Minami if you hate me so much," Umi replied.

Her mother watched helplessly as the two fought, "Isn't this getting a little out of hand?"

"No, Mother. If father doesn't acknowledge me as his daughter, then why should I keep my name?!" Umi accidentally yelled at her mother.

"You have given it up in my eyes long ago," his voice echoed across the home.

Umi got up and turned around to leave, "Good luck getting an heir to the Sonoda name you stubborn excuse of a father..." she walked out of the home without looking back.

Umi's mother looked frantically between her husband and her daughter's back. This is bound to be the last time Umi would ever visit home again.

"Oh dear, I forgot to buy more cabbage for dinner," Umi's mother rushed up to grab her purse and a small envelope that she kept hidden underneath her jewelry box.

"I'll be back soon, darling," her mother quickly left the home and stumbled through the front gate in search of her daughter. She caught a glimpse of her walking quite a distance away and started jogging to catch up with her.

"Umi wait!" her mother called out.

She turned and noticed her mother running after her. She stood in place until her mother caught up.

"You really need to slow down, it's hard to keep up at my age..." her mother took a second to catch her breath.

"What is it now, Mother?" Umi's voice was still bitter after what had just happened. Her mother handed over the small envelope from earlier and Umi took a look at it, "What is this?"

"Take a look inside," her mother insisted.

Umi flipped open the envelope's flap to see a large amount of money inside of it, "M-Mother, why are you giving me this?"

"There's 10,000 yen in there," her mother replied.

"I can't take this, Father will get mad at you," Umi pushed the envelope back but her mother forced it into her hands.

"This is the money that I have been keeping away from your father, just in case of a family emergency," her mother explained.

Umi felt a warmness inside of her chest and her eyes started to tear up, "You still consider me family?" her voice started to crack.

Umi's mother embraced her and let her cry into her shoulder, "You'll always be my daughter that I love with all my heart, Umi."

"Thank you so much, Mother," Umi fought to get her words out and express her gratitude.

"I love you, honey. Hurry along now, don't keep your wife waiting," her mother used her arms to separate each other and beckoned Umi to return home.

"You're right, I've got to get going. I love you, mother, thank you so much," Umi hugged her mother tightly one last time, "I don't know when I'll visit again, but I promise that I will."

Her mother patted her back, "There, there, don't force yourself to visit us if you don't want to."

"I still want to visit you at least," Umi chuckled and wiped away the rest of her tears. She took a deep breath and turned around, "I'll you again, Mother."

* * *

Umi made her way to the bank once she got back and deposited the money that her mother gave her. She made sure to put it in her checkings account so that the funds would be there once the savings account was transferred over.

She took a deep breath and look up to the sky. If it hadn't have been for her mother, she wouldn't have known what to do. Her mother gave her more than she needed too, so if there is anything else they need to pay for they at least have some money to fall back on.

Umi made her way back to the hospital to be by her wife's side again. When she entered the room, Hanayo was in there and the two of them were talking about something. They shut up immediately and welcomed Umi back.

"You're back, just like you promised," Kotori smiled.

"I'm not one to break promises," Umi took a seat next to Kotori and held her hand. She looked over to Hanayo and bowed, "Thank you for taking the time to visit."

"Oh it's no big deal, I was passing by and thought I should drop in and say hello," Hanayo got up, "It's about time I started heading out anyways, I'll come visit again after the surgery. Good luck, Kotori."

The couple waved goodbye and Umi turned to face Kotori, "What did you two talk about?"

"Nothing much really, she just wanted to get to know me some more," Kotori replied.

Umi placed her head against her shoulder. Kotori leaned her head onto Umi's and took a deep breath, "I hope the operation goes well..."

"It will... will make sure of it," Umi reassured.

"We still have an hour before it begins," Kotori added.

"What do you want to do?" Umi asked.

Kotori shrugged, "Just talking is fine."

"Okay then."

"Where did you go all morning?" Kotori asked.

Umi swallowed before answering, "...I went to go visit my parents."

Kotori was shocked, "Your parents? Why?"

Kotori knew about the relationship between Umi and her father. If she had to go visit home, that meant that it was something serious.

"Don't worry about it, everything is going to be alright," Umi said coldly.

"Are you sure? Nothing serious happened right?" Kotori was worried.

"It's nothing, I'm starting to consider taking up your name once our marriage documents come through," Umi answered.

Kotori was confused, "I thought I was going to change to Sonoda?"

"I don't think that is the best decision anymore..." Umi replied sadly.

"Oh..." Kotori quieted down. Umi's mood had turned sour and she didn't want to say anything that could hurt or offend her.

The couple remained quiet, the only contact that they had was physical. Umi would routinely massage Kotori's hand when she felt that something was wrong.

"Are you nervous?" Umi asked.

"A little... who doesn't get nervous before a surgery?" Kotori joked.

"I guess you're right..." Umi continued to comfort her lover until the time came.

Maki stepped into the room with her clipboard like she always had and stood in front of the couple, "Are you ready to begin the operation?"

Kotori nodded, "As ready as I'll ever be..."

Maki wrote down a few things on her clipboard before continuing, "Now I must ask if you could vacate the room, ." Maki gestured her hand towards the door and Umi did as she was told. Her walk was a little hesitant, she didn't want to leave Kotori alone at a time like this. Of course, she knew that it would be impossible for her to be in the operating room with her, but she still had the feeling tug at her.

A few of the hospital staff members came passing by with a stretcher and entered Kotori's room. After a few minutes, they were back out and Umi could see that Kotori was on it now. The two exchanged a thumbs up and Umi followed them as far as she could.

She watched as her lover went through those large doors for the second time. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around to see that it was Maki, "Don't you worry, she's in good hands."

"Aren't you going in too?" Umi asked.

"I may be a doctor, but I'm no surgeon," Maki chuckled a little to help ease the tension, "Do you have somewhere you need to be?"

"Why do you ask?"

Maki looked at her papers, "Well, the operation can take anywhere between 3-8 hours."

"Oh... I can just sit here and wait..." Umi began walking towards a nearby bench but she was stopped by Maki.

"I'm not supposed to do this without special permission, but I can take you to the observatory room."

Umi raised her eyebrow in question, "Observatory room?"

"It's a room where we have surgeons and doctors in training watching the surgery from behind a two way glass window," Maki explained.

"But you said that you aren't supposed to do this, right?" she brought up what Maki had said a moment ago.

"I know, but I can see how much you love your wife. And I saw how hesitant you were to leave her alone. I can come up with some sort of excuse for you," Maki suggested.

Umi felt a warmness in her heart due to Maki's generosity, "Thank you, doctor."

"Please follow me, if we hurry we can make it to the room by the time they put her under anesthesia," Maki started walking off and Umi followed closely behind.

She wasn't able to be in the same room as her, but at least seeing Kotori helped ease the tension that Umi would have felt sitting alone in the hallway.

The two arrived in front of a door and Maki stepped in first. The dark room was illuminated by the hallway lights but as soon as Umi stepped in and the door shut, it became pitch black. Maki led her over to a seat and they waited until they got a visual on Kotori.

Curtains were pulled from the other side of the glass and Umi saw everything. Numerous doctors scrambling around, various kinds of machinery and tools, it all looked just like how she saw on TV.

In the middle she spotted Kotori who was strapped onto a vertical table surrounded by numerous lights. Kotori was looking around like a clueless animal, but it seemed that she was for the most part calm. A doctor approached her with a mask, "There's the anesthetic..." Maki whispered.

She observed as Kotori slowly closed her eyes and drift off into slumber, "We're using our strongest anesthetic which should keep her sleeping for a little over 12 hours. She also has a slim 10% chance of waking up during the surgery," she continued to explain.

Umi listened and watched intently, it could only get worse from here on out, "The first thing we have to do is shave off her hair so that it doesn't get in the way." The doctors did as Maki had said and they cut off all of Kotori's hair.

"The next step is to create an incision in the scalp and use forceps to keep the skin from pulling back into place," Maki's description was surprisingly vivid and it made Umi a little uncomfortable. The doctors proceeded to create small incisions and revealed the area where Kotori's skull fractured.

"Now comes a difficult part... opening up the skull so we can get a closer look and extract any of the bone fragments from her brain." Umi watched as the doctors brought in a choice of handsaws. She felt like she could wretch at any second, so she looked away.

"C-can you tell me when this part is done?" Umi asked hesitantly.

Maki placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her back and forth gently, "Sure, it'll take some time though so feel free to take a nap."

"No, I'll be alright, just tell me when they finish this..." Umi kept her eyes away from the viewing glass by fiddling with her fingers or looking into her lap.

An hour passed by and Umi felt a tap on her shoulder, "They're done opening up the skull." she sat up straight and slowly turned her eyes to see. She couldn't help but feel fairly uneasy after seeing the sight of her wife's brain. However, Umi was able to keep her composure and pushed herself to watch.

"We're two hours into the operation now, this will take another two or three to finish."

"Why is that?"

"This is the most important part, it requires absolute concentration and a steady pair of hands. One mistake could have Kotori end up with brain problems," Maki explained.

"What kind of problems?" Umi wanted to get an idea of what could happen. This was probably a bad idea, but at least it would occupy her time as the operation went on.

"Well, since she suffered damage to the rear part of her brain, something could go wrong with her vision. The reason being because that is where the occipital lobe is located. It's the part of the brain that governs your vision," Maki used complex terms but Umi was able to get the gist of it.

"She could also suffer damage in the parietal lobe which is in charge of our goal directed movements. If this area is damaged, she could suffer a loss in hand-eye coordination. She could also lose her ability to multi-task."

"That would be terrible..." she couldn't help but picture Kotori struggling to continue her job as a waitress in the restaurant. She shook her head to eliminate the thought and faced Maki again, "Is there anything else?"

"I guess there could be a possibility that she could suffer damage to the cerebellum," Maki answered with less confidence.

"What is that in charge of?"

"Our motor functions, if this gets damage, she can lose the ability to walk or have coordination at all," she replied.

That set Umi off more than she could have anticipated. If Kotori did have trouble in that area, it could mean the end of her days as a waitress... and more.

She watched as the surgeons removed each and every little fragment of bone from Kotori's brain. By the time they were done, three hours had passed and all of the fragments were placed on a small saucer.

"They're going to look to see if there may have been damage caused by the trauma now," Maki said.

Umi watched the doctors gather around and the head surgeon wrote down some information but Umi was way too far away to see it. She could only hope that "no damage" was written on it.

"Now they place the bone piece they cut out back where it belongs and secure it with small plates and screws," Maki further explained, "Then we stitch it up and we're done until she wakes up from the anesthesia."

The operation took a total of 7 hours and Kotori was wheeled out of the operating room. Maki got up and led Umi into the hallway, "She'll be taken to the recovery room where we will monitor her health until she wakes up."

"C-can I see her?" Umi asked hesitantly.

Maki nodded, "Yeah sure, follow me."

She followed Maki down the hallway and up to the third floor, they arrived in front of a door and Maki stepped in first before Umi, " has a visitor," she motioned Umi to come in. Maki did that so when Umi walked in, she wouldn't be yelled at for no reason.

She stepped inside and saw Kotori asleep on a bed next to a heart monitor. She had a breathing tube still attached to help her breathe until she wakes up. Maki motioned Umi to take a seat to the side and they waited until Kotori woke up.

* * *

3 more hours have passed and Kotori's eyebrows started to furrow. Umi saw it first and she pulled up closer to Kotori in her chair. Her eyes slowly opened and she looked around, when she saw Umi looking at her she smiled.

"Good morning, sunshine," Umi said playfully.

Maki stood up and made her way to the other side of the bed, "Turn this way please, ."

Kotori did as she was told and turned to face her. Maki brought her hands over to her face and slowly removed the breathing tube, "Are you having trouble breathing?"

Kotori shook her head so Maki put the breathing tube down and shut off the machine. She stood up and moved over to the foot of Kotori's bed, "Now I know that you two must really want to talk, but I have to make one more examination."

"O-oh, okay," Umi scooted her chair back from the bed and a stretcher was brought in. Kotori was placed on it and rolled out of the room.

Maki looked over at Umi, "Do you mind staying here until we return?" Umi nodded and she ran out to catch up with Kotori.

Kotori and Maki went through two large swinging doors that had "neuroscience intensive care unit" written above them. Kotori was lifted onto an examination table and Maki stood by her side. She pulled out a flashlight and shined it into Kotori's eyes to check her pupils, "What is your name?" she asked.

"Minami Kotori," she replied.

"Okay, good... How old are you?" Maki continued to question.

"24," Kotori answered.

"Good... good... Who is your spouse?" Maki asked again.

"Sonoda Umi," Kotori answered.

"Okay, it seems like the surgery did not damage any of your memories or thinking process, now I'm going to ask you to wiggle your fingers."

Kotori did as she was told and she wiggled them. Maki wrote down a few notes before continuing, "Now move your arms for me."

Kotori lifted up her arms in response and Maki wrote down more notes, "Now wiggle your toes."

Kotori wiggled them, but she noticed that she was having a little difficulty with it.

Maki took wrote the observation down, "Now lift up your legs."

Kotori tried to lift her legs up but could barely get them raised off of the examination table. She started to panic and kept trying to lift her legs up. Maki saw Kotori's panicked expression and she placed her hand on Kotori's legs, "Relax... We expected that something like this would happen..."

"W-why can't I move my legs?!" Kotori's voice was cracked.

"During the surgery, we found that some of the bone fragments cut into your spinocerebellum, the good news is that it wasn't a major cut which would have left you paraplegic."

"Are you sure, Doctor?" Kotori asked.

Maki nodded, "You are still able to move your toes and your legs even though it is very weak. With enough rehabilitation, you should be able to walk again, but it won't be an easy task."

Kotori let out a sigh of relief, but she still couldn't shake the shock from losing her ability to walk, even if it was temporary.

"It'll take a few weeks to a few months for your brain to regenerate that connection, until then you must stay in the hospital and attend rehabilitation," Maki explained.

Kotori frowned a little, "I understand, Doctor..."

"Let's head back to go see your wife now," Maki tried to sound positive but it seems like it worked for the most part. Kotori's frowned disappeared once she heard what Maki had suggested.

A team of nurses wheeled Kotori back to her room where she was lifted onto her bed once again. Umi took her bedside immediately and kissed Kotori's cheek, "How is everything? Nothing is wrong, right?"

Kotori's smile slowly faded into a frown and she looked into her lap, "Hey Kotori, what's wrong?"

"I don't know how to explain it bu-" Kotori was interrupted when the door opened, it was Maki again.

"Would you rather have me explain it to her?" she asked.

Kotori nodded and remained silent. Maki took a seat next to Umi and explained the situation. It was tougher on Umi than Kotori had anticipated.

"W-Will she be fine?! How soon can she walk?" Umi kept blurting out questions.

"Please remain calm, , I promise you that will be able to walk again. This isn't a spinal cord injury that leaves her paralysed, it is only temporary. But it will take some time, and even then she might need assistance in walking by the time she leaves this hospital."

"You mean you can't keep her in here until she fully recovers?" Umi kept the questions coming.

"Your insurance will only pay for so much, ," Maki answered.

"W-what? How much will it cost in total for Kotori to stay here until she can walk normally again?"

"180,000 to 350,000 yen a month,"

Umi almost choked on her own saliva from hearing the number, "It really costs that much?!"

Maki nodded, "Your insurance agreed to cover the first month, but after that you have to make the payments on your own."

Umi held her words back and looked to Kotori, "What do you think?"

"If we can't make the payments then I think I should come home after the first month," Kotori answered.

Umi held her hand, "Are you sure? Shouldn't we keep giving you the proper help?"

"I'll be fine Umi, how hard can it be to walk again?" Kotori chuckled sadly.

"Kotori, I'm serious here... I'm willing to work my butt off so that you can walk again," she looked straight into Kotori's eyes.

Kotori looked away, "But 180,000 yen... we can't make that much a month even with how well the restaurant is running."

"I'll get a second job, I'll do anything," Umi persisted.

"Umi... Even if you get a second job, paying for my rehab will bankrupt the restaurant," Kotori gripped her hands.

"I don't care! I just want you to be safe and happy again!" Umi denied any sense of reason.

She patted Umi's head to help her calm down, "Umi... our hopes and dreams are placed in that restaurant. I would much rather have a difficult time walking than giving that up..."

"But Kotori..."

"Umi... That restaurant is our entire life, if we give it up then what do we have left?" Kotori asked.

Umi remained silent, no matter how romantic it would have sounded for her to say that they would still have each other, she knew that Kotori was right. The cost of maintaining and restocking the restaurant every month plus paying Arisa and Yukiho would leave them with 6,000 yen every month. Even if she took a second job, she wouldn't be able to come up with at least 174,000 more yen.

Umi sighed and held Kotori's hands, "You're right, Kotori..." she brought her hand up and cupped her cheek, "Thank you for being my voice of reason."

Kotori smiled and leaned over to give Umi a kiss.

"Alright, now that that's settled, I suggest the two of you to get some sleep, it's been a long day," Maki exited the room and left the two women alone.

Umi massaged Kotori's hand, "You should get some sleep."

"What about you?" Kotori asked.

"I'm going to head home for a few things and come back," Umi got up and gave Kotori a quick kiss.

"Okay, I'll wait for you," she waved.

Umi shook her head in response, "If you want to sleep then just go ahead," she closed the door gently behind her.

She felt a vibration from her pocket and she pulled out her phone, the caller ID read "Honoka" and she pressed on the green button, "Hello?"

"Umi?! You're going to want to come back right now!" Honoka yelled into her ear.

"Why? What's wrong?!"

"I heard some noises in the restaurant, I think I saw someone sneak in. It has to be the one who broke in the other night," Honoka explained.

Umi's heart began to race and something came over her, "Honoka, call the police and keep a lookout in case the person runs." Umi hung up the phone and broke into a run, if she was quick enough she could get back to the restaurant and confront the person that took away Kotori's ability to walk.

Umi didn't stop for one second and sprinted her way back home. What was normally a 30 minute walk turned into a 15 minute run, when she was nearing the restaurant, she pulled out her phone to call Honoka, "Honoka! Is the intruder still there?"

"I haven't seen anyone leave yet, what are you planning to do?" Honoka asked.

"I'm going to have a chat, have you called the police?"

"Yeah they should be here in 10 minutes," Honoka replied.

"Perfect," Umi hung up when she reached the front of the restaurant. She carefully snuck around to the back which hung wide open. She could hear rustling and things falling down from inside and she loosed up her dress shirt.

Umi walked in with her guard up, she peered around the corner to see a large figure at the cash register. Umi smirked because there was no money in it since she deposits every day's earnings the morning after.

"Looking for something?" Umi called out.

The figure turned around and reached for the kendo stick that Umi had hidden behind the counter.

"How odd that you knew that was there..." Umi moved into a defensive stance, "I would think twice before attacking me with my own weapon."

The intruder swung the kendo stick down and Umi quickly disarmed him, "Did you think a weapon would give you an upper hand?"

The intruder took a step back, "Now let me offer a thought, if you may," Umi paced herself back and forth slightly, "Why did you attack my wife?"

The intruder remained silent and something snapped inside of Umi. She lunged forward and grabbed them by the collar, "Do you know what you did to her?!" she slammed the intruder against the counter, "You took away her freedom to walk!" she pulled the person up and tossed them to the side, "Do you understand what that feels like?!"

Umi stepped on the intruder's leg and listened to his scream, "I'm not a vengeful person at all, but since you hurt the girl I love..." her foot started to crush the man's knee, "I should let you experience her pain."

Umi raised her foot and stomped the ground instead, "But I'm not the same as you, get up!" Umi grabbed the man's collar and pulled him to the front, "Sit."

Umi kicked the man down to the ground and removed his hood, it was the same man from the other day that caused trouble in the restaurant. That would explain why he knew where Umi's kendo stick was hidden.

She knelt down next to the man and looked into his eyes, "Why did you do it? Was it to make you feel like you had power? Did it make you feel like someone actually cares about you?"

"You don't know nothing about me..." the man spat out.

"Oh, but I do. You see, no one would resort to such violence if they are surrounded by people that love them," Umi began monologuing.

"Do you have anyone that you love? Friends? Family? A girl?" Umi asked.

The man looked away as Umi talked.

"Because you see, love is a two way relationship. If you do something terrible, it affects the other person. I could have broken your legs back there, but I knew that my wife would never have wanted me to do that for her sake," Umi continued.

"Did you ever think about how your actions here would affect anyone who loved you? Your family? What do you think they would feel knowing that you are a lowly piece of trash that turns to violence when he doesn't get what he wants?" Umi did not ease up.

She stood and looked down on him, "By the way, that waitress, Yukiho. She is under age you sick pervert. You should be ashamed of yourself."

By the time Umi had finished talking, the police had arrived and taken him into custody. Honoka came out of her house and stood next to her, "That's the guy?"

Umi nodded and Honoka rushed towards him with a shoe in her hand, "You jerk! How dare you hit on my underage sister, you're like 30 something!" she tossed her shoe and it hit his head, "And that's for Kotori as well!"

The man was led into the back of a police car and Honoka walked over to get her shoe back, she used Umi as support while she put it back on, "So how did the surgery go? Is Kotori alright?"

Umi frowned and nodded, "Yeah, she's okay for now."

"Umi, what's wrong?" Honoka saw the look on her face and showed her concern.

Umi began to explain, "... Kotori can't walk…"

"W-What? No way!" Honoka expressed her shock, "Are you saying she can't walk ever again?"

Umi shook her head, "She'll be able to walk again, but she has to go to rehab if she wants to."

"Ohh… Well I wish for her speedy recovery then."

Umi sighed, "Anyways, I'm going to grab a few things and head back to stay with her."

"Oh, goodnight then! Tell Kotori I said hello," Honoka waved at Umi's back as she made her way back home.

Umi rushed upstairs to get a change of clothes, two chargers, Kotori's phone, and made her way downstairs to grab a few snacks and drinks from the kitchen. She packed them all into a small duffle bag and made her way back to the hospital.

Umi peeked inside of Kotori's room, it was dark and the only thing lighting the room was the lamp over Kotori's head. She snuck in quietly and set the bag down next to Kotori, she leaned over and kissed Kotori on the forehead before grabbing a chair from the corner. She propped herself up against Kotori's bedside and held her hand. She rested her head against her shoulder and listened as the frail girl whimpered and whispered Umi's name constantly in her sleep.

* * *

Umi awoke the next morning to see Kotori staring at her, it caused her to jump back slightly but she recovered, "K-Kotori! Good morning!"

The girl smiled and giggled, "Good morning, Umi~"

Umi rubbed her eyes to wake herself up and reached down into the duffle bag, "I uhh… I brought some snacks and some water if you want anything."

"Some water would be nice," Kotori stated.

Umi shuffled through the duffle bag and pulled out a small bottle of water. She unscrewed the cap and held it up to Kotori's mouth, "Umi, I can drink on my own."

Umi shook her head and insisted on doing it for her, "Don't worry, I'll take care of you."

Kotori gave up and let Umi help her drink the water. Kotori raised her hand to signal Umi to stop and she gulped the water, the water felt great against her dry throat and she smiled, "Thank you, Umi!"

She nodded, "What about something to snack on?"

"Sure, what did you bring?" Kotori asked.

"Umm… Some jello, a few sandwiches and some cookies," Umi brought out a cooler from the duffle bag and showed Kotori.

She pulled out a sandwich, "Did you make these sandwiches?"

Umi nodded and Kotori smiled, "Hehe, I get to eat more of Umi's cooking."

Her commentary caused Umi to blush and look away, "I made your favorite."

"Really?!" Kotori opened the ziplock and pulled out the sandwich. It was a chicken cutlet sandwich that was grilled instead of fried, Umi made these special sandwiches only for Kotori. The grilled chicken had a glaze of honey ranch with garlic sprinkled on it, one side of the bread had a light amount of mayo while the other half had some lettuce and no tomato.

Kotori's eyes lit up and she took a big bite of the sandwich, she chewed on it thoroughly and made a satisfied face. She brought her hand up to her cheek while she chewed and savored the taste with all of it's greatness and glory.

Umi couldn't help but smile at the animated reaction of Kotori eating the sandwich she made. She had always enjoyed making people smile through her food, but Kotori's reactions were always something special to her.

Maki walked into the room, "Good morning you two, I see you already have breakfast out of the way."

Kotori smiled and nodded with her cheeks stuffed, "Mhmm!"

"That's good, you're going to need to eat a lot to keep your strength up for the rehab sessions," Maki added.

Kotori swallowed the food in her mouth before speaking, "When do I start?"

"Usually we wait for two to three days in the case of something coming up, but your health seems to check out and we can start today if you wish," Maki explained.

Kotori looked at Umi, "Should I?"

"If you think you're ready for it," Umi answered.

"Hmm…" Kotori thought to herself, "If you bring me one of these every day then I would be fine with starting today~" Kotori giggled before she bit into the sandwich again.

She looked at Kotori and smiled as if she were looking at a child, "Okay, I promise."

"Yaaay~" Kotori turned to face Maki, "When do I have to be ready?"

"Your rehab sessions will start everyday at noon and end at 5 in the evening," Maki replied.

"Just in time for lunch and dinner," Kotori added. She looked over to the clock and saw that it was 11:30am, "It's almost time for it to start!"

"That's why I'm here, I'll let you finish up your food."

Kotori scarfed down the rest of the sandwich and Umi wiped her face clean for her, "I'm ready, Doc."

Maki held the door open and a nurse came in with a wheelchair. She lifted Kotori onto it and rolled her out of the room, "May I talk to you for a second, ?"

Umi put away the cooler into the duffle bag and got up, "What is it doctor?"

"About how you're going to pay for the surgery…"

"Oh yes, I have the money, I'm just waiting on the bank to transfer the funds from our savings account to our checking account," Umi replied.

"Excellent, now that all the financial things have been taken care of, you can rest easy now," Maki pat Umi on the back and left to catch up with Kotori.

She watched their backs and waited until they disappeared from her sight before leaving the hospital and returning home.

* * *

Kotori looked around as she was being pushed in her wheelchair, she looked up at Maki who was focused on the paperwork on her clipboard. She turned to face forward and saw the words, "Rehabilitation Center" above the doors. Maki walked forward and held the door open for Kotori and the nurse, she observed the room and saw numerous other patients just like her doing physical activity to regain their abilities to function.

Kotori was wheeled over to a woman that was standing between two railings, "Hello , I'll be your physical trainer for the next month."

"Nice to meet you, miss," Kotori bowed and held out her hand for a shake. The woman shook her hand and smiled, "Let's work hard so you can go back home to your wife!"

Kotori smiled and blushed, "I'll give it my all!" the nurse and Maki left Kotori alone with the woman so they could get their work done.

"Okay, the first step is to get you on your feet," the woman reached for Kotori's hands, "Try to pull yourself up."

Kotori did as she was told, when she pulled on the woman's arms, she felt a dead weight from the lower half of her body. She looked down to see her legs dangling like they had no life in them.

"Good, good, take it slow, I'll hold you up," the woman instructed.

Kotori tried with every fiber in her being to get her legs straight, she began to sweat as she made no progress at all. Her arms began to feel weak and she started to feel a shortness in breath, "C-Can we take a small break?"

The woman let Kotori down gently, "You're doing fine, just take it slowly. We have a month together so you have plenty of time."

Kotori sat in her wheelchair until she caught her breath, "Okay… I'm ready."

The woman grabbed Kotori's hands again and she lifted herself up. The dead weight was back and Kotori struggled helplessly to move her legs, "Come on… start working!" She yelled at herself in attempts to motivate her legs. She tried all she could but she was getting nowhere, she cursed herself under her breath.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up over this, it's still your first day," the trainer said.

Kotori calmed down, "I know… I just… Want to get back home as soon as I can."

"I admire your determination, but if you don't stay calm, you'll get nowhere," the woman placed her hands on Kotori's shoulders.

She sighed, "You're right… I'm sorry."

"Come on, let's keep trying," the woman suggested.

Kotori nodded and continued to try her best. The first day didn't end too well for Kotori, she still couldn't move any part of her lower body except for her toes. She sat in her bed and stared at her legs, she watched her toes wiggle around and she had a sour look on her face.

"Dumb legs… Why won't you work like my toes? This makes no sense," she threw her hands to the side and noticed the dufflebag that Umi had brought earlier. She reached down to pick it up and scavenged through it, she found the cooler and pulled it out.

She opened it and smiled, "There's still a sandwich and some cookies in here."

She picked up one of the cookies and stuffed it into her mouth, "I'll wait until Umi comes to visit."

She nibbled on the cookie and waited for her Umi to arrive. Kotori sat alone in her room and turned on the TV to pass the time. There was a news story going on that caught her attention, "Man arrested for breaking and entering a local restaurant."

"Hmm? Is that Umi?!" Kotori saw the familiar blue hair on TV.

"As the owner of this establishment, how did you react to this man breaking into your home?" the spokesperson asked.

"Well… I wouldn't be lying if I said I wasn't furious, he hurt someone very special to me," Umi answered.

"Where is this special person?" the microphone was brought back and forth between the two.

"She's recovering at the hospital right now."

"Ahh, well we all wish for her a speedy recovery."

"Thank you."

"Can you go over how you caught the man?" the spokesperson asked.

"I got a call from our next door neighbor and I came running to confront him," Umi answered.

"Why didn't you wait for police to come?"

"If I didn't, he might have gotten away, and I couldn't allow for that to happen."

"And what stopped you from hurting the man like how he hurt your wife?"

Umi looked down and blushed, "Because I knew that if I did, she wouldn't forgive me for my behavior."

"It sounds like you have an amazing wife."

"Thank you, she is," Umi replied.

"We will now move on to some words from the chief of police on this matter."

Kotori's attention was broken when the door to her room opened, Umi walked in and she gasped, "Umi! I just saw you on TV!"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, they interviewed me earlier today," Umi walked in and placed a bag on the nightstand next to the bed, "I brought dinner."

"Ooo~ What did you make me?" Kotori reached for the bag and opened it.

"Some chicken curry and rice," Umi answered.

"Ooo~ Yummy, thanks for the meal, Umi!" Kotori opened up the styrofoam container and grabbed the disposable utensils from the bag. She began eating down the food with much vigor.

"You're hungrier than usual," Umi chuckled.

Kotori looked up at Umi before swallowing her food, letting out a satisfying sigh, "I worked really hard today!"

Umi patted her head and smiled, "I'm proud of you." Umi wasn't used to petting Kotori's head now that it had little hair on it. She was used to patting the small little brush of hair that she always had.

Kotori smiled and continued to eat her dinner, "Aren't you going to eat too?"

Umi shook her head, "I'm not very hungry."

"Boo... At least eat dinner with me," Kotori used her spoon to pick up some of the food and held it over to Umi, "Just have one bite."

Umi gave up and ate whenever Kotori would present food to her, "Your cooking is always amazing, Umi."

"I put a lot of love in it for you," she said unconsciously.

"Pfft- Umi that was surprisingly cute," Kotori began giggling to herself.

Umi blushed, "I said that out loud?"

Kotori nodded and continued to laugh. Soon enough, Kotori finished her dinner and Umi helped clean up, "Thank you for the food," Kotori said.

"Anything for you," Umi poked Kotori's nose and took a seat next to her, "Do you want me to sleep here with you tonight?"

Kotori shook her head, "No that's okay, I think you should open up the restaurant again. If we leave it closed any longer we might end up in trouble."

Umi reached for her phone, "Oh yeah, that's right... I totally forgot. Let me call Arisa and Yukiho and tell them that we're opening up again."

Umi made the call and Kotori waited for her to finish up, "You should head home, Umi."

"I don't like sleeping without you..." she muttered.

"Hang in, for me," Kotori held her hand, "just for a month."

Umi looked down at their locked hands and nodded, "I can do it if it's for you..."

"Hehe, good girl," Kotori leaned in and kissed her, "Now go home and get some sleep, the restaurant needs you."

Umi reluctantly got up, "I'll visit every day during lunch and dinner, I promise."

"Okay, but if it's a really busy day at the restaurant, don't come see me," Kotori demanded.

"B-but..."

"No buts! The restaurant will fail without it's only cook," Kotori's words hit Umi hard and she had nothing else to say.

"Y-You're right, I'll work my best for you," Umi took a step out of the door, "I love you."

"I love you too," Kotori waved and the door slowly shut. She took a deep breath and leaned back, "Umi sure has been very lovey-dovey lately," Kotori giggled to herself, "Not that I don't mind."

Kotori closed her eyes and imagined herself back at the restaurant with Umi and the others. She smiled and slowly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"Kotori? Kotori?"

Kotori heard a voice calling out to her, she slowly opened her eyes to see Hanayo in front of her. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, "Hanayo...?"

"Good morning," she replied happily.

"Umm... Good morning," Kotori was expecting to see Umi, not that Hanayo was bad or anything, "Why are you here?"

"I heard from Rin that you were looking to have a wedding?" Hanayo asked.

"... oh right! I did mention that when we first met..." Kotori thought back to the first time she met Rin, "Why do you ask?"

"I wanted to offer my services to you, free of charge," Hanayo stated.

Kotori almost choked on her own saliva, "You're offering to plan our wedding?!"

"Yes, everything will be paid for by my company."

"N-no way! Are you sure?" she asked again to make sure, "I'm not dreaming right?"

Hanayo giggled and got down to business, "Yes, and no you aren't dreaming. I know how much it costs to go through brain surgery and I know that you two want to hold a proper wedding. Since you two just paid for your medical bill, I'm certain that you have little money leftover."

Kotori pulled Hanayo's hands and brought her in for a hug, "Thank you so much Hanayo," Kotori sniffled as she was on the verge of tears, "You don't know how much this means to us."

Hanayo patted Kotori's back until she let go of her, "Starting today, I'm going to be here every morning to help you plan the wedding."

Kotori nodded but then raised her eyebrow, "Did you tell Umi about this?"

Hanayo shook her head, "I think it would be more exciting if we kept it a secret from her."

"This looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship..." Kotori muttered.

"So I'm thinking that we keep this a secret from Umi and we throw the wedding on the day of your dismissal from the hospital," Hanayo proposed.

"T-that sounds like a good idea, but I don't know if I'll be able to walk by then," Kotori replied.

Hanayo frowned, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know about that..."

Kotori brought her hands up and shook them to dismiss Hanayo's worry, "No, it's okay! I'm trying my best so don't worry."

"I still want to help you with the wedding," Hanayo said.

Kotori nodded and Hanayo reached into her bag for an album book, "Okay so where do we start..."

* * *

Kotori spent the next two weeks working with Hanayo every morning and trying her best with her physical trainer. She was able to finally stand up on her own, but walking was still a challenge.

"Alright try to walk over to me, ," the woman instructed.

Kotori slowly lifted one leg up and pushed it forward.

"You're doing good, keep it up," the woman cheered Kotori on.

She lifted her other leg up and pushed it past the other. It was very slow and sluggish, but Kotori was slowly gaining her ability to walk again. She fell over many times, but no matter the pain or embarrassment she felt, she fought on.

Another week passed by and Kotori was finally able to walk her way down with the help of the hand railings.

"You're recovering exceptionally quick, . You must really love your wife to push yourself like this," the woman commented.

Kotori smiled and nodded, "I really do, and I miss her so much."

The day came to an end and Kotori was wheeled back to her room, when she arrived, she saw that Umi was waiting for her, "Umi?"

The girl turned around, "Hey Kotori! It's been awhile, I'm sorry I haven't visited in the past 3 weeks..."

Kotori dismissed the nurse and wheeled herself towards Umi, "Here, help me," Kotori slowly stood up and Umi quickly supported her onto the bed.

"You can finally stand on your own! And your hair has started growing back, I can see that little tuft is back too," Umi congratulated.

"Mhmm!" Kotori smiled back.

"The restaurant has been so busy ever since it was on the news, I'm so sorry that I haven't had the time to visit you..." Umi explained.

"It's okay, how are Arisa and Yukiho holding up?" Kotori asked.

"They've been doing fine, Yukiho showed Arisa the ropes so we're managing well," Umi answered.

"That's great!"

Umi remained silent before she suddenly hugged onto Kotori, "... I missed you so much..."

Kotori was surprised for a moment but she wrapped her arms around Umi in response, "I've missed you a lot too..."

"It's so lonely sleeping without you..." Umi added.

"I know... I miss sleeping next to you too, but just one more week, okay?" Kotori gently massaged Umi's arm and she rested her head against Kotori's shoulder.

The two sat in silence until Umi started dozing off, "She must be exhausted from work..." Kotori shook she awake, "Umi, if you're tired, you should go home and sleep."

Umi rubbed her eyes, "I didn't even notice that I was falling asleep..." she yawned and got up.

"I'll visit again when I can, I love you," Umi rubbed her eyes some more to wake herself up.

"I love you too, Umi," Kotori waved the girl goodbye. She had one week left to regain her walking ability and finalize the wedding plan.

Kotori woke up the next morning to see Hanayo again, "Good morning, Hanayo."

"Good morning Kotori, I have great news!"

Kotori rubbed her eyes and sat up, "What is it?"

She took a deep breath and started explaining, "Everything is coming along as planned, we have the wedding hall booked out and everything is getting prepared. I did as you asked and went with a classic black and white wedding theme and everything should be ready before you are dismissed from the hospital."

"That's wonderful, thank you so much Hanayo!" Kotori bowed to show her gratitude.

"We also have your wedding dress all done and ready for the occasion as well," Hanayo said.

Kotori took a deep breath and released a sigh of relief, "Thank you for everything, Hanayo."

"Don't thank me just yet, wait until the wedding is over," Hanayo winked and pulled out a small sheet of paper, "I wrote down what you need to do from your end until the day you leave, make sure to do them."

Kotori nodded and looked at her list of stuff to do. Hanayo got up and left, "See you when you get out!"

* * *

Kotori attended her rehab sessions for the rest of the week and made a considerable amount of recovery. Her walking wasn't exactly perfect and she needed a cane to help her get around. This was the best she could do with the time she had.

She made a call home to Umi the day before and requested that she come pick her up after she finished her last rehab session.

She made her way down the stairs and waited until a car pulled up in front of her. The door opened and Hanayo was inside, "Hurry and get in!" she yelled.

Kotori got in the car and it sped off.

Umi woke up and quickly got dressed. According to Kotori's instructions last night, she wanted Umi to pick her up while wearing a black suit. It was a weird request, but perhaps it was just to celebrate Kotori's recovery. She straightened her tie and fixed up her hair to make herself look as dashing as possible for Kotori.

Umi yelled to herself, "Okay, I'm on my way Kotori!" and made her way out of their home. She reached the hospital thirty minutes later and opened up Kotori's door. Instead of Kotori, she saw Maki, "Hello, ,"

"Dr. Nishikino, umm... where's Kotori?" Umi looked around.

"I thought she already left with you?" Maki answered back with a question.

"N-No, she told me to come pick her up at this time," Umi started to panic, what if someone snatched Kotori while she was waiting for her?

"She did mention that she wanted to go somewhere with you, maybe she left to go there?" Maki tossed a question back.

"Do you know where she went?" Umi wanted to find Kotori as quickly as she could.

"I think she wrote it down around here somewhere..." Maki looked around and saw the piece of paper on the nightstand, "Ah yes, here it is." Maki handed the piece of paper to Umi.

She was unfamiliar with the address but it was definitely Kotori's handwriting, "Thank you, Doctor. I'll be on my way now." She turned around and ran down the hallway.

Maki sat silently in Kotori's room.

"Well done, Maki," a voice called out.

Maki looked over to the corner and a small head pop out from behind the curtain, "How was I, Nico?"

"You did great! She totally believed you, now hurry up and get ready, we'll be late," Nico stepped out from behind the curtain to show that she was wearing a white dress.

Maki unbuttoned her doctor's coat and revealed her own black dress that she was already wearing, "I'm ready to go."

Nico smiled and grabbed Maki's hand. The two ran down the hospital and into the parking lot. They got inside of Maki's car and drove off to where the wedding was being held.

Umi ran down the street and constantly checked where this address was. It was nearly 30 minutes away in the opposite direction of their home, "Where did you go, Kotori?!"

Umi arrived in front of the building that Kotori had written down, she ran inside and went to the front desk, "Hi, do you know where this room is?" Umi scrambled in her pockets for the scrap of paper and slammed it on the counter.

The man looked at the room number and pointed down the hallway, "It's the third from the left."

Umi grabbed the piece of paper and stuffed it into her pocket, "Thank you," she lightly jogged down the hallway and opened the door. It was dark and there was a single light that lit up the end of the room. Umi squinted her eyes and saw Honoka standing in the light, "Honoka?! Is that you?!"

The orange haired girl turned to face Umi, "Oh, Umi!" She made her way across the dark room to meet up with her.

"Hey Honoka, have you seen Kotori?" Umi asked.

Honoka shook her head, "No, isn't she in the hospital?"

"No when I went to pick her up sh-" Umi was interrupted when Honoka's phone went off.

"Can you give me a second?" Honoka walked over to the side and let out a small gasp. She ran over to her, "Umi could you hold on to this for me?" she set a small box in Umi's hands, "Yukiho just called and I have to go back home."

"U-umm... okay, sure?" she took the small box and stuffed it into her suit pocket.

"Thank you, I'll come back for it later," Honoka ran off before Umi could say goodbye.

She sighed and opened up the door to the room again. She took a step in and the door behind her closed. She carefully made her way through the darkness and called out, "Kotori? Are you in here?"

When she reached the spotlight, the room was suddenly lit up and it blinded Umi for a few seconds. She removed her hands and slowly opened her eyes to see that she was surrounded by numerous amounts of people that she knew.

"W-what's going on?" Umi looked around confused like a deer in headlights. All of her friends were here and everyone was wearing either black or white.

In the distance, she spotted Maki who she had just seen earlier today. She was wearing a black dress and she stood next to Nico who was wearing white. Next to them she saw that Nozomi was also wearing white and Eli wore black. Next to them stood Hanayo and Rin who followed the same color scheme as the other two.

The door that Umi had just walked through moments ago slammed open and Honoka walked in. She motioned for someone behind her to come in and Umi's eyes widened.

Kotori walked through the doors with a beautiful wedding dress on. She was using a cane to help herself walk while her other hand was holding a bouquet of flowers.

Umi was completely shocked and stood in place until Kotori caught up to her.

"K-Kotori?" Umi finally muttered.

"Hey Umi!" she smiled back.

"W-what is all of this?" Umi looked around as numerous eyes were on the two.

"How do I look?" she changed the subject.

"Y-you look beautiful, I mean... where did you get this dress? And your hair has grown back a bit," Umi was silenced by Kotori's finger.

"The wedding is about to begin..." just as Kotori spoke those words, music began to play and the crowd of people started clapping.

"Wedding...? Is this our..." Umi looked down and saw that Kotori who was on the verge of tears, "Kotori, how did you...?"

"Would the bride and groom please step forth!" Umi jumped when she heard a powerful voice yelling behind her. She turned around to face a large man dressed as a priest.

Kotori stepped to the side and pulled on Umi to stand next to her.

The priest took a deep breath before continuing,

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here on this beautiful day to witness the union of Kotori and Umi. This is a day of great celebration and reverence, on which we come together to recognize and commemorate the sacred love and dedication shared between these two people. It is wonderful to have family and friends here to join us today. The bride and groom would like to thank their guests for being here, and would like you to know that each of you were invited here on this day because you have played an integral part in their intertwining lives.

Nothing happens without a cause. The union of these women have not come about accidentally but is the foreordained result of many past lives. This tie can therefore not be broken or dissolved.

In the future, happy occasions will come as surely as the morning. Difficult times will come as surely as night.

To say the words love and compassion is easy. But to accept that love and compassion are built upon patience and perseverance is not.

In the time that Umi and Kotori have spent together, they've built the sturdy foundation for a lifelong relationship. After a great deal of thoughtful consideration, they have decided to bind themselves to one another for the rest of their lives.

May you all remember and cherish this sacred ceremony, for on this day, with love, we will forever bind Umi and Kotori together."

The crowd clapped and cheered as the priest finished his opening statement. Umi stood dumbfounded and look to Kotori who seemed to be completely calm.

The priest opened his mouth wide to speak again,

"Who gives this bride today?"

A man stood up, "I do."

Umi turned around to see her father who walked up in front of them. Something wasn't right, shouldn't it be Kotori's mother who gives the blessing?

Umi's father cleared his throat,

"I am here today to witness the marriage of my daughter, Sonoda Umi. And I am here on behalf of my daughter to give her the absolute support and love that she always deserved. I was not the best father to you, in fact, all I ever did was push against you whenever you would lash out, and for that I apologize.

I know that the things I have said would drive any daughter to turn her back on her father, but I have realized the error of my ways and wish to mend them from here on out.

To the lucky woman who is marrying my daughter, Minami Kotori. I know that you and I have never seen eye to eye, and I have placed much of the blame on you for many years. I want to apologize for my behavior and I wish for your happy and healthy future."

Umi felt tears starting to well up in her eyes as her father bowed to the crowd and made his way back to his seat. She felt a hand brush against her cheek and wipe away her tears.

Umi smiled through them, "Kotori..."

The priest held up his hands to speak again,

"If there is anyone in attendance who has cause to believe that this couple should not be joined in marriage, you may speak now or forever hold your peace."

The room was filled with silence and there was not one hand that rose among the crowd.

The priest continued on,

"Marriage is a sacred ceremony. Today we observe the union of these two people with the respect the occasion warrants. What we honor with reverence, however, we also celebrate with great joy! For married life – a shared life – is a tremendous blessing. Now, as Umi and Kotori embark on this journey together, they will be able to nurture a love that makes each of them better versions of themselves. Marriage is, indeed, the perfect garden from which to sow and harvest personal growth."

He turned his attention towards the two women,

"Umi and Kotori, learn to work together, to laugh together, and to love together. Don't get caught up in worldly things that will draw you apart. Instead, focus on your shared devotion and turn inward. As your relationship strengthens you will find that you come to share a remarkable love; a love that is both abundantly given and freely accepted.

The joy you'll find as you pursue your shared lives will fuel you to face head-on the challenges you'll encounter on this Earth. On your journeys together, keep your spouse in the space of highest priority in your heart. The love you share must be guarded and cherished, it is your most valuable treasure."

He smiled at the two and continued,

"Umi and Kotori, the sacred vows that you make to one another today present you with the opportunity to express your love in your own words. I would at this time invite you to publically declare these vows:

Umi, you may begin."

Umi stood frozen, she had no idea that she had to write or rehearse a vow. She was speechless until Kotori pressed a piece of paper against her chest. She grabbed it and started reading it aloud.

"I, Umi, take you, Kotori, for my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life, until death do us part. This is my solemn vow."

She took a deep breath and relaxed her shoulders.

"Kotori, you may now make your promise," the priest announced.

Kotori calmly opened her eyes and looked into Umi's, "I, Kotori, take you, Umi, for my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life, until death do us part. This is my solemn vow."

The man raised his hands towards the two women,

"Kotori and Umi please face one another and join hands."

The two did as they were told and intertwined their hands together.

"Kotori, do you take Umi to be your lawfully wedded wife? By making this commitment, you are joining in the sacred covenant of marriage.

Do you promise to honor her in love, to be sensitive to her needs, to comfort her in difficulty, and to put your full and complete trust in her, so long as you both shall live?"

Kotori smiled as tears began to roll down her cheeks, "I do."

"Umi, do you take Kotori to be your lawfully wedded wife? By making this commitment, you are joining in the covenant of marriage.

Do you promise to honor her in love, to be sensitive to her needs, to comfort her in difficulty, and to put your full and complete trust in her, so long as you both shall live?"

Umi held her tears back and struggled to get the words out, "I do."

"To commemorate this union, you may now exchange rings. The circle formed by each ring symbolizes your eternal love and commitment to one another. Let these rings remind you always of that love, and of the promises you have made here on this day.

Will each of you please repeat after me as you place the ring on your loved one's hand?"

The priest stepped over to Kotori and began whispering the words into her ear, she repeated after him,

"I, Kotori, give you Umi this ring as a symbol of my love and commitment. With this ring, I thee wed."

She slid the ring onto Umi's finger and smiled.

The priest then stepped over and patted Umi's suit pocket. She pulled out the small box that Honoka had given her at the door and she opened it to reveal a beautiful ring. The priest whispered Umi's line and she repeated after him,

"I, Umi, give you Kotori this ring as a symbol of my love and commitment. With this ring, I thee wed."

Umi fought to hold her tears back, but they came pouring out little by little as she slid the ring onto Kotori's finger. The two looked each other in the eyes and smiled brightly.

"By the power vested in me, I pronounce you, Kotori and Umi spouses for life. Umi, you may now kiss the bride, forever sealing your union."

Umi embraced Kotori and pressed their lips together. The crowd cheered as the two shared a loving kiss that bound them together even tighter.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present to you Mrs. Sonoda Umi & Kotori!"

The crowd cheered as the couple turned around to bow to their guests. The amount of joy that the two of them were feeling were completely incomparable to any joy that they had ever felt in their lives. At long last, the two have finally been legally wedded and the two gazed at each other lovingly.

"Now we shall begin the wedding reception!" the priest announced and guided the newly wedded couple to their table. They sat at a long table where their closest friends and family joined them. Kotori's side of the table sat her Mother, Hanayo, Nico, Honoka, Nozomi and Yukiho. On Umi's side sat her Mother, Father, Eli, Rin, Maki and Arisa.

Umi turned towards Kotori, "Kotori, how did you plan all of this?"

She smiled, "Hanayo offered to help."

"Where did you get the money to pay for everything?" Umi showed a bit of concern.

Kotori placed her hand over Umi's and held it gently to ease her concern, "Hanayo's company paid for everything, free of charge."

"No way! I have to thank her later for everything," Umi leaned over to get a glimpse of Hanayo and she waved back at her. Umi smiled and nodded her head in response to Hanayo's wave.

She placed her hand on Kotori's shoulder, "Hey, I'm going to talk to my father for a second."

Kotori nodded and Umi got up to make way towards her father. She knelt down between her parents, "I'm surprised that you two are here."

"I wouldn't miss my daughter's marriage for the world," her mother replied.

Her father remained silent and avoided eye contact, "You really surprised me today, father… Thank you," Umi reached up and kissed her father's cheek, "I'm sorry for disobeying you all these years."

Her father cleared his throat, "I'm sorry for always being so strict on you… I meant you no harm and that is no excuse for a father."

"Awww!" Umi's mother wrapped her arms around her daughter and husband. The family shared a lovely group hug and chuckled over how idiotic their bouts were over the years.

Kotori looked over and smiled, this was the first time that she had seen Umi getting along with her father and it made her happy that he approves of their marriage. Umi gave another kiss to her parents' cheeks and moved over to the other girls on her side of the table.

"Thank you guys so much for coming," Umi bowed and looked at Maki, "You tricked me didn't you, Doctor?"

Maki raised her eyebrow and played stupid, "Whatever could you mean by that ?"

They both giggled and Umi turned her attention to Eli, Arisa, and Rin, "Thank you again, it means a lot that you three are here for us."

"We're here to celebrate Kotori's recovery and your marriage, we wouldn't miss it for anything else," Eli replied.

"I helped a lot with the decorations so I hope you like them, nya," Rin added.

Umi looked around and took note of the decorations around the wedding hall, "I love them, Rin. Thank you for working so hard for our sake," Umi smiled and bowed.

She got up and walked past Kotori to greet her side of the table, "Hello, Mrs. Minami, thank you for attending our wedding."

"There's no way I would miss my precious daughter's wedding, and you can call me Mom now," Kotori's mother teased Umi and poked her cheek.

Umi scratched where she was poked and laughed, "You're right, give me some time to get used to it alright?"

Kotori's mother leaned forward and motioned her daughter over, "Hey Kotori, why don't you go talk with your new mother and father in law?"

Kotori did as her mother suggested and she got up to talk to them. Umi watched Kotori walk off and she continued down the line towards Hanayo.

"Hey Hanayo, we haven't known each other that long, but you have my eternal gratitude for putting together this wedding for us," Umi bowed.

Hanayo brought her hands up and shook them, "It is no problem at all, my company specializes in planning weddings for those that can't afford them. It was just luck that brought us together."

Umi smiled and took a hold of Hanayo's hand, "I still want to thank you for everything, this is a dream come true for Kotori and I."

She bowed and Umi moved on to the others, "Hey guys, thanks for helping with everything."

"You're always providing us with delicious food, it's the least we can do," Nozomi replied.

"I'll be performing for you guys later, so look forward to it," Nico announced.

"I'm so happy for you two," Honoka added.

Umi bowed and returned to her seat, she spotted Kotori still talking to her parents and waited for her to finish. Kotori returned shortly after and they smiled at each other. They picked up their wine glasses and toasted to their long future together.

Halfway through the night Nico did a sort of half time show and put on an extravagant performance in honor of their marriage. It was kind of strange, but they decided to keep their mouths shut for Nico's sake.

The wedding slowly made its way towards the end and Umi helped Kotori walk around the room to thank all of the guests for coming out to their wedding. By the time they finished, most of the guests have left and the music started to die down. The only people left in the wedding hall were the lovely couple, their family and their close friends. Umi and Kotori turned to face their beloved ones and bowed, "Thank you guys for giving us the most wonderful wedding we could ask for."

The group came together and hugged each other. Each of them offered the couple their best wishes before leaving the the wedding hall. Their parent's were the last ones to leave and the two looked at each other. Umi hugged Kotori in her arms and she snuggled back in response. Their hearts filled with a tingling warmness that they have never felt before. They were now officially married, Umi's relationship with her parents returned to normal, and best of all Kotori was able to walk once again.

Umi lifted her up into a princess carry, "Let's get back home, Kotori."


End file.
